The Art of Wisdom and Stupidity

Now, there is nothing of which a man is prouder than of intellectual ability, for it is this that gives him his commanding place in the animal world. It is an exceedingly rash thing to let anyone see that you are decidedly superior to him in this respect, and to let other people see it too...
Hence, while rank and riches may always reckon upon differential treatment in society; that is something that intellectual ability can never expect. To be ignored is the greatest favor shown to it, and if people notice it at all, it is because they regard it as a piece of impertinence, or else as something to which its possessor has no legitimate right and upon which he dares to pride himself. In retaliation and revenge for his conduct, people secretly try to humiliate him in some other way; and even if they hesitate to do this, it is only because they seek a fitting opportunity.
A man may be as humble as possible in his demeanor, and yet hardly ever get people to overlook his crime in standing intellectually above them. In the Garden of Roses, Sadi makes the remark: “You should know that foolish people are a hundredfold more averse to meeting the wise than the wise are indisposed for the company of the foolish.”
On the other hand, it is a real recommendation to be decidedly stupid at appropriate times. For just as warmth is agreeable to the body, so it does the mind good to feel its superiority; and a man will usually seek the company of someone likely to give him this feeling, as instinctively as he would approach a fireplace or walk in the sun to get warm. But this also means that he will be disliked on account of his superiority.
If a man out of the necessity in trying to further his cause to being liked, then he must act or seem inferior in point of intellect and never give off a highly intellectual charisma and/or demeanor, as this will only serve fatal to his motive.
(ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER, 1788-1860)

Here’s a story a friend of mine told me recently, written in first-person perspective: There is this church I attend every Sunday, truth be told I am actually just a Sunday-Sunday Christian but that’s beside the point. Most of my fellow members have come to know me as that guy they saw only on Sundays and maybe on special occasions during the week, this is quite understandable because my parents attend the same church; in fact I was born into it, and with a congregation numbering just about a thousand, everyone seems to know everyone else at least on facial recognition basis. The point here is, seeing as I was a natural born member of this church, it is imperative that I be a more dedicated member, I personally do not share in that sentiment. Now, I know you (myself here as the writer) will be judging this situation but the thing is I really don’t get inspired anymore by the spiritual standing of the congregation... The resentment for me by some fellow members came to an all-time high when last Sunday, during a program, specific references were made publicly from the pulpit to me and my unending cycle of withdrawal from church activities. Someone even walked up to me after service and told me to my face that the reason for my lack of enthusiasm stems from my feeling of superiority among other members. I was dumbfounded, “Where did that idea come from?” I asked myself quietly. But what I now understood was that behaviour such as mine actually came off to others as superiority complex, which is totally not how I intended at all...
That story by my friend proves in fact that people will not like you for being different, and if they pretend they did, it would be because they were waiting for a time when they can say it to your face or probably humiliate and embarrass you, just to feed their ego. This happens to almost everyone, there’s no rule certifying who and who gets to be disliked for being intellectually superior; even just being different from a pack evokes the exact same emotion from other people in that same pack.
Given how important the idea of intelligence is to most people’s vanity, it is critical never inadvertently to insult or impugn a person’s brain power. To reveal the true nature of your intelligence rarely pays; you should get in the habit of downplaying it at ‘appropriate times’.

“Know how to make use of stupidity: The wisest man plays this card at times. There are occasions when the highest wisdom consists in appearing not to know, you must not be ignorant but you must be capable of playing it. It is not much good being wise among fools and sane among lunatics. He who poses as a fool is not a fool. The best way to be well received by all is to clothe yourself in the skin of the dumbest of brutes. (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)”