1. Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
- Ernest Hemingway, author and journalist, Nobel laureate (1899-1961)
Hemingway, who took his own life in 1961, knew his share of both intelligent peo
ple and of unhappiness. He lived through two world wars, the Great Depression, f
our wives and an unknown number of failed romantic relationships, none of which
would help him to develop happiness if he knew how.
As Hemingway's quote was based on his life experience, I will base the followin
g speculation on both my personal and my professional experience as a sociologis
t. Not enough study exists to quote on this subject.
Western society is not set up to nurture intelligent children and adults, the wa
y it dotes over athletes and sports figures, especially the outstanding ones. Wh
ile we have the odd notable personality such as Albert Einstein, we also have ma
ny extremely intelligent people working in occupations that are considered among
the lowliest, as may be attested by a review of the membership lists of Mensa (
the club for the top two percent on intelligence scales).
Education systems in countries whose primary interest is in wealth accumulation
encourage heroes in movies, war and sports, but not in intellectual development.
Super intelligent people manage, but few reach the top of the business or socia
l ladder.
Children develop along four streams: intellectual, physical, emotional (psycholo
gical) and social. In classrooms, the smartest kids tend to be left out of more
activities by other children than they are included in. They are "odd," they are
the geeks, they are social outsiders. In other words, they do not develop socia
lly as well as they may develop intellectually or even physically where opportun
ities may exist for more progress.
Their emotional development, characterized by their ability to cope with risky o
r stressful situations, especially over long periods of time, also lags behind t
hat of the average person.
Adults tend to believe that intelligent kids can deal with anything because they
are intellectually superior. This inevitably includes situations where the inte
lligent kids have neither knowledge nor skills to support their experience. They
go through the tough times alone. Adults don't understand that they need help a
nd other kids don't want to associate with kids the social leaders say are outsi
ders.
As a result we have many highly intelligent people whose social development prog
resses much slower than that of most people and they have trouble coping with th
e stressors of life that present themselves to everyone. It should come as no su
rprise that the vast majority of prison inmates are socially and emotionally und
erdeveloped or maldeveloped and a larger than average percentage of them are mor
e intelligent than the norm.
Western society provides the ideal incubator for social misfits and those with e
motional coping problems. When it comes to happiness, people who are socially in
ept and who have trouble coping emotionally with the exigencies of life would no
t be among those you should expect to be happy.
This may be changing in the 21st century as the geeks gain recognition as people
with great potential, especially as people who might make their fortune in the
world of high technology. Geeks may be more socially accepted than in the past,
but unless they receive more assistance with their social and emotional developm
ent, most are destined to be unhappy as they mature in the world of adults.

2. People with high intelligence, be they children or adults, still rank as social
outsiders in most situations, including their skills to be good mates and parent
s.
Moreover, they tend to see more of the tragedy in the communites and countries t
hey live in, and in the world, than the average person whose primary source of n
ews and information is comedy shows on television. Tragedy is easier to find tha
n compassion, even though compassion likely exists in greater proportion in most
communities.
Bill Allin
'Turning It Around: Causes and Cures for Today's Epidemic Social Problems,' stri
ving to make the difficult problems easier to understand so someone can change t
he system.
Learn more at http://billallin.com