Sever Voinescu: Politeness and the Decline of Intelligence

Any serious book or source on political history shows that, until one or two generations ago, politicians used to demolish their opponents with humor and retorts that were as intelligent as they were stinging. Then, sometime around the 2000s, political language became harsh, rough, boorish, reaching today the point of cruel affronts and grave insults. Stupid, idiot, thief are words used so often that they almost no longer damage any reputation or stain any honor. All to the satisfaction of a people that has always been the same: it relishes the boorish aggressiveness of its favorite and protests in the name of common sense when, being equally boorish, the favorite’s opponent responds. Politics has abandoned politeness. The phenomenon, however, is not merely political. At the social level, the age of modernity we are living through comes with a diminishment of politeness and courtesy. To use a Nietzschean metaphor, modern man understands that his emancipation means casting from his shoulders obligations he considers outdated and believes have kept him “bound” unjustly. Politeness and courtesy are among them. The figure of yesterday’s insolent rebel is now an educational standard – the use of first names, incompetent and courageous defiance (the more incompetent, the more courageous!), tearing down statues without really knowing why our predecessors erected that statue, along with political correctness and the new egalitarianism are all, fundamentally, forms of abandoning politeness.

Perhaps it does not necessarily fit the usual explanations, but I attribute this phenomenon to the empirically proven worldwide decline in the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) – yes, this is the cruel truth demonstrated empirically: the human species as a whole is becoming less and less intelligent. The figures show that the decline in global IQ began sometime around the 1970s and perhaps continues inexorably. It seems to me that politeness is the preserve of intelligence to a greater extent than of good upbringing.

Somewhere in Parerga and Paralipomena, Schopenhauer writes: “Politeness presupposes that we tacitly agree that the miserable defects of human beings, whether intellectual or moral, will be ignored and will not become grounds for reproach and, since these defects are no longer perceived as visible or striking, the effect is mutually advantageous. It is wise to be polite and, consequently, it is foolish to be boorish. Making enemies by behaving uncivilly deliberately and without any necessity is like setting fire to one’s own house. Politeness is like a coin everyone knows to be false – it is foolish to be stingy with it. An intelligent person will be generous with this coin.” Very convincing!

Furthermore, we can admit that there is a direct connection between the tendency of the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) to decline worldwide and the decline in the rigor and quality of education. On social networks, the subjects of a Philosophy entrance examination at Oxford at the end of the nineteenth century have been circulated side by side with the subjects of the same examination in our own time. It was obvious that today’s questions were ridiculous, absolutely childish, compared with those from a century and more ago, the university remaining, of course, a top institution famous for its rigor. I am not discussing whether the decline in the quality of education led to the decline in IQ or vice versa; what interests me is that we acknowledge that there is a direct connection between these two undeniable phenomena. Therefore, I will complete the syllogism by saying that there is a clear connection between the decline in the quality of education and the disappearance of politeness from the public sphere.

You will say, with some justification, I admit, that politeness belongs to that part of education which takes place at home, to what is known as “the first seven years at home.” Mother and father and the family environment teach you how to behave from your earliest social contacts, at an age when learning is mimetic – you do what you see the members of your family doing. If they are boorish, uncouth, inconsiderate, or if they are well-mannered, polite, civilized – so will you be. Except that the connection between intelligence and politeness gives us a new perspective and shows us that politeness can also be acquired in places where intelligence is cultivated and stimulated. School, the general sociocultural environment, one’s circle of acquaintances, and activities through which passions are cultivated are places and occasions where politeness can be learned as a manifestation of intelligence, even if it was not learned in the “first seven years” as an ethic. I am not saying that school or education outside the family can compensate for errors in family upbringing. I believe such cases are extremely rare. But I am saying that at least an uncouth child can be explained and shown that it is directly in their own interest not to behave that way, but rather to dissimulate somehow, to appear polite and then become polite.

In a phrase that at one point became famous among Romanian intellectuals, Alexandru Paleologu said that politeness is a weapon: “In a climate of brutality and stupidity, politeness is a weapon that finds you undefended.” More clearly: when you meet brutality and stupidity with politeness, the brute or the fool is stunned and backs down. This is not about the Christian turning of the other cheek; it is about a strategy with which, at least for the moment, you can deal effectively with brutality. But we also have the Romanian saying, “A sweet word brings much.” It is not merely about flattery; it is about the sweet and noble sound of politeness, which always brings benefits compared with the sharp words of the insolent.

But perhaps more important than anything is that politeness, and nothing else, opens the world to anyone. Politeness is not merely a manner, not merely behavior or an attitude in society; it is a way of being. Politeness is not only socially agreeable; it is also a condition of achievement in knowledge. Any useful intellectual effort presupposes politeness and respect for the field in which it is practiced. The paideic relationship is impossible without politeness – mentor and apprentice, above all, respect each other, while the mentor is polite to the apprentice in the spirit of generosity, and the apprentice is polite to the mentor in the spirit of gratitude. Just as the research effort, even when individual, is sterile without respect for all those who achieved things before us and whose results research continues to build on today.

But today, here in Romania, politeness is urgently necessary if we are to halt the decline of our intelligence.

https://www.dilema.ro/tilc-show/politetea-si-declinul-inteligentei