Brains and Beauty
I was chatting with Richard last night and he commented that there are two main things that are valued in our society: Brains and Beauty, and not necessarily in that order.
In terms of beauty, people may respond well to physically attractive people while shying away from others that are not so attractive. People may spend inordinate amounts of time in an effort to improve their own physical beauty.
The cliche about appreciating beauty above any other personal trait is that beauty is only skin deep. While a lot of people do understand that precept, Richard commented that the next trait that we put on the pedestal is being smart. In fact, people that value knowledge most highly are sometimes condescending to people that value physical beauty most highly. And yet, many people respond to people with mental deficiencies or a lower IQ in the same way that others respond to some physical attributes. How is that any different?
Can a person be admired for their servanthood even if they are neither smart nor beautiful? In fact, I've seen several different people in the past two weeks that were dissed for being too helpful. Why do we sometimes have such trouble appreciating servanthood in the way that we appreciate Brains and Beauty?
For myself, I admire those with an independant spirit who can make decisions and stick out from a crowd. I strongly admire people that love children. I admire those that feel free to express themselves in outward worship to God. I admire those that can admit when they are wrong. I presume everyone reading this can add to this list. (Feel free to do so.)
So why do we place Brains and Beauty on a pedestal? Why don't we see beauty everywhere?
6 comments:
Well, beauty can come in many different forms, but I'm sure the beauty you speak of is physical beauty. I don't think there's anything wrong with admiring physical beauty, it's just our society, and many others, takes it too far. Just look at the shows: America's Next Top Model, Extreme Makeover, Styling Gypsies, etc. They're all a ploy to make people look better. I think it's because when people are attractive or feel attractive, they feel important and therefore strive to maintain their beauty. I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to look your best, unless that's all you care about.
I agree, though. I like helping people out a lot, and I find that it IS admired. Often if I'm nice to someone and they don't expect a teenager to be nice, it surprises them and kind of makes them happy in a way. But we are a selfish people and when you're helping or serving others, they may deem that as "weird" because it's unexpected. But yeah, servanthood should be placed high among the traits of importance.
Admiring knowledge hits close to home with me as I have an insatiable passion for acquiring more knowledge. However, the first three chapters of 1 Cor. are pretty striking as we learn about the futility of worldly knowledge.
The things I admire the most are people who can think outside the box, people who shun the temptations of society and people who are willing to suffer with those who are suffering.
I also admire red-headed guys that sing really well and think about God a lot.
I think we should all strive to achieve our best potential self. That may mean taking care of ourselves and somehow looking beautiful, and also taking care of our minds and being intelligent.
I think it's easy to become vain and arrogant if we start to compare ourselves with others. We should be humble at all times and treat others as equal fellow human beings no matter what their beauty or intellegence level seems to be.
Inner beauty that comes from the soul is often harder to see, but God sees I'm sure, so perhaps we should strive to see that beauty in others too.
Cheers,
I especially like that last line, Amanda. I think that we should see others as Jesus sees them, and see ourselves as Jesus sees us.
Do you really think our culture values intelligence?
The Americans are an easier target on this one - look at their presidents. In the fifties, Eisenhower was up against Adlai Stevenson. Eisenhower talked slowly and very folky, like a grandfather, while Stevenson was openly intellectual and discussed issues in a complex way. He was labled an "egg head", and was beaten badly. Twice.
Jimmy Carter vs. Ronald Reagan. This time it was another nerd vs. a really loud guy.
Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar, but did he advertise it? No, he *hid* it.
And the current President, Bush. Watch how he talks. His speech patterns are very common and don't suggest any particular intelligence. (this isn't a shot at Bush, I'm sure he's super smart - smart enough to dumb everything down)
Even in my own university classes, the unusually articulate and intelligent students are sneered at after class.
That applies to all levels of education, really. Unless you are one of the few, the proud, the ubercool, being smart is a liability.
Being smart doesn't win you popularity contests, even if it does provide for a great deal of matireal success.
I guess what I'm saying is, people don't like people that are smarter than they are. It breeds resentment.
Beauty has its own pros and cons, but one of the pros is that you're always more popular becuase of it.
Interesting point, Mike. Maybe it's just average intelligence that is praised. Based on my personal experience in the past few months, though, there are still plenty of people that look down on those with below-average intelligence. I find it disturbing that people will do the equivalent of walking on the other side of the street rather than chat with someone that is not so smart even though they have other remarkable attributes.
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