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Quote of the Day: We Left the Playground Long Ago
“Intelligent people tend to talk about the facts. They don’t sit around and call each other names. That’s what you can find on a third-grade playground.” –Ben Carson
Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, seemed to have everything working against him when he was growing up. In spite of having poverty as an excuse to fail, his mother demanded that he read and study. As most of us know, he became a world-renowned neurosurgeon. Eventually, he became well-known in Conservative circles and was selected to serve as a cabinet secretary by Donald Trump.
Of course, in the eyes of the Left, he has “betrayed the cause.” He’s a successful black man, religious, and has conservative values. He has no use for the political Left, either, so they despise him. He has been under a microscope since Trump selected him.
He also is a straight-talker and doesn’t tolerate nonsense. For that reason, he notes in this quote that no matter how a person wants to define intelligence — the Left looks at the number of degrees you have and the Leftist values you hold — it has to do, at least in part, with expecting facts and dealing with them effectively.
When people rely on innuendo, rumors, hyperbole, and name-calling, they are revealing how ignorant they are. They also betray their lack of maturity and the ability to deal with things as they are. They’d rather fight for idealism than truth. They have no idea how irresponsible they are. But Ben Carson knows better. Intelligence has to do with the capacity to use logic, a level of self-awareness, ability to reason and plan, being creative, and solving problems: attributes which we value on the Right.
We left the playground behind long ago.
Published in General
Of course, the left argues he’s not really black because of his success without liberalism . . .
My heart goes out to successful, conservative blacks. They show so much courage and fortitude. Ben Carson is an example to everyone, no matter a person’s color, what it means to be a great American and live the American dream!
I think this is a very good man.
I was much amused to hear Maxine Waters’ recent comment, that Ben Carson “just doesn’t have the background, the capability, the intelligence to do the job.” The first analogy that springs to mind is one about pots and kettles, but I’m not going there in this case.
To say that a man who grew up in extreme poverty, and who rose to become a neurosurgeon with the ability to plan for, and successfully separate, twins conjoined at the head (subsequent muckraking reports that they did not all survive or flourish–hello?–notwithstanding) doesn’t have the right “background” or doesn’t have enough “intelligence” to serve in the Cabinet is ludicrous. That the person saying it is Maxine Waters just makes it all the more so.
I think Ben Carson is a gentle man, and a gentleman. I’m not sure he’s super good at thinking on his feet in interviews, because he’s not used to thinking and speaking like a politician, and he doesn’t want to get in trouble, so he’s sometimes overly cautious. (Some people might call that “thoughtful.” Can’t have that.) But I think his instincts are good. And he certainly doesn’t lack the smarts to do the job.
To quote from another of my favorites: “I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”–Margaret Thatcher
Leftists never want to solve a problem, they just keep it going . As Rahm Emanuel said, “Never let a crisis go to waste.”
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Wonderful comment, @she. What is fascinating about Dr. Carson is that at one point, his temper was so violent that he feared he might kill someone in a fit of anger. He made a commitment to not let his anger rule his life. Awesome decision, awesome man.
I also admire Justice Thomas, Walter Williams, and Thomas Sowell. Are three are conservative, overcame adversity growing up, and are intellectual giants.
I spoke with Dr. Carson at a Hillsdale function, and I asked him about being on the board of Costco with all those leftists. He said he was doing his best to get them to see the light. He left the board shortly thereafter, and nobody on the Costco board was convinced (logical, since leftists don’t listen to reason).
Susan, you know what came to mind as I read those three sentences of the quote, don’t you? Donald Trump.
As much as I support Trump — and in my mind, he might be the best President in my lifetime — his “arguments” with his enemies, and they are legion, sound like he’s back on a grade school playground hurling insults.
If I were to judge Trump solely on the basis of his insults, I would think the man a bit retarded and certainly immature in the extreme.
I think there’s much truth in what you say. What most amazes me is how he gets so many things right while hurling the insults that one would expect to have been exhausted on the ‘public’ grade school playground. I’m content to observe him use his words that way as long as the performance continues to be great. His problem in this regard in the not so distant past existed mainly in our society’s elite and its uneducated poor, in the elite because of private schooling and in the poor for lack of schooling. The American middle class learned dealing with differences with their fellows in large measure on the ‘public’ school playgrounds and in classrooms when they once taught how to function in American society. Now that public educational process is non-existent and we see social media filled with supposedly educated Americans many of whom hurl insults very competitively with the President. Somehow Donald Trump has developed common sense in action that, on occasion, fails him in his words.
I like Carson and like the reference to kids preferring insults to arguments. But it has little to do with intelligence.
Obviously, there are many intelligent people who resort to insults because they don’t care to convince their opponents. They want to defeat, not convert, their opponents. Intelligence is only a tool. If another method can accomplish the same result (“winning” or silencing opposition), then debate is often set aside by the intelligent in favor of bullying.
For people who take pride in their intelligence or aspire to be smart, proposing that objective debate can exhibit one’s intelligence can help. But insults can also be clever, so that appeal to pride often fails. Insults are more fun.
We must appeal to their better nature and not their worst. Show them the peace of generosity and patience in conversation, the hope and joy of seeking truth together, the potential of bridging differences to establish new friendships. Caring about one’s enemies is what prompts one to stop hammering them and instead seek communion.
I get the impression that Carson also does that. It’s just not contained in that quote.
I think Trump is an interesting departure from the prototypical playground trash talker. I can recommend Bill O’Reilly’s United States of Trump as a reference. It is not a fawning account, but it is fair and illuminates Trump’s personal and familial history. One is left with the impression of a loner who enjoys attention — positive or negative — which helps him deal with the barrage of negative media. Some say he is a clown. But remember the actors with greatest intelligence and insight into the human experience are the comedians, not the dramatic actors. He believes in showmanship (and always has) as a tool in his pursuit of winning. The reason why he is (IMO) a good president is that he sees winning as something that everyone can do and should do. His Art of the Deal was designed for mass consumption, not unlike Scott Adams’ Win Bigly and Loserthink, that gives anyone who wants them some tools to improve their lives, or at least be less subject to being taken advantage of. Trump has a sense, which I think is true, that the history of America has given us a core population of individual strivers — people with whom he is quite comfortable. He understands that progressives want to replace that population of strivers with a population of serfs, and he is not having any of it. He is a winner, his country is a winner, and his people are winners. That animates him bigly.
The taunts arise from the reality that when you seek the top of the pecking order you get resistance — particularly from those you supplant. In the animal kingdom many animals seek dominance vocally and avoid physical combat if dominance can be achieved otherwise. We are not used to our leaders being so raw in their ambition and assertion to leadership. “It’s just not done” has been the established view. And yet our history — and that of any other civilization — shows that it is done, repeatedly and persistently. It’s just that we developed a “club” mentality that Trump is successfully challenging.
This is so rich. Great springboard, She.
First of all, I don’t think that the pot is calling the kettle black in this instance. I think that the pot is saying that the kettle is not actually black. :)
Second of all, even if the pot wanted to accuse something of blackness in this instance, it would be more like the pot calling the gleaming neurosurgical operating room black.
Have we had a memorable one since Teddy Roosevelt?
LBJ. He was not as charismatic, perhaps, and lacked similar opportunities to establish a legend.
I can understand your perception of Trump. The big difference, however, is that he does seek input and information, and is known for listening to people he doesn’t agree with. Lately, too, I think he’s been making good decisions. And I don’t think he’s retarded at all.
Susan, you forgot to read my conditional clause, “If I were to judge Trump solely on the basis of his insults, I would think the man a bit retarded and certainly immature in the extreme.”
I didn’t forget–and I appreciated it. But I had a knee-jerk reaction to the criticism. Sorry.
Whoops.
Yeah, but people like Maxine Waters take the fun out of them.
In his defense, we don’t have the context, although I agree with all you say, @aaronmiller. I wonder if it would have been more appropriate to use the word “wisdom” rather than intelligence?
So where does that place Trump? He loves the name calling and taunting. And is not all that keen on facts.
I see Trump exactly the opposite of this. And based on his own words. He likes to go with his gut. He doesn’t read. And some very good advisors lasted a very short time because they disagreed with Trump.
“Referring to criticism that he could be better schooled on matters of foreign policy, Trump suggested he would do just as well, if not better than the current or past administrations without anyone providing input.“
See http://ricochet.com/711025/cultural-site-its-no-crime/comment-page-3/#comment-4666058.
I’m not going to argue with you about Trump. It’s boring at this point. I could make counter-arguments but it would make no difference.
Fighting fire with fire.
I think he knows how distracted they get with the schoolyard insults (something they’re not used to), so he gives it to ’em in spades. It drives the left visibly crazy, which people need to see – particularly Democrat voters who aren’t woke . . .
Amen!
Yeah, it could be that Donald Trump sometimes talks like an idiot as part of a calculated strategy. Last summer Maryland Representative Elijah Cummings criticized Trump over . . . who even remembers what? Something to do with impeachment? Trump responded by Tweeting about what a rat-infested hellhole Baltimore is and we’re off to the races. Nobody in the press (or anywhere else) even cares what Cummings original point was. Now it’s a debate over how bad Baltimore is. What any of that has to do with Cummings’ criticism is beyond me.
Donald Trump is a master of using the media. Trump could get caught embezzling money and he would say to a reporter, “Your mother is a fatso” and all anyone would be talking about is whether that was mean or whether it was justified because after all, she could stand to lose a few pounds.