The Cycles of Intelligence
Throughout history, the interplay between different forms of intelligence and societal power structures has shaped the course of human civilization. This dance of brilliance and repression, of valuing and devaluing intellectual gifts, has created a cyclical pattern that repeats itself across cultures and eras. At the heart of this cycle lies a fundamental truth: those in power seek to maintain their position by controlling the narrative around intelligence and genius.
The Ebb and Flow of Valued Intelligence
Our story begins in ancient times, where practical intelligence — the ability to farm, build, and create — was highly prized. As societies grew more complex, different forms of intelligence came to the forefront. In classical Greece, we saw the rise of philosophical and rhetorical intelligence, with thinkers like Socrates and Plato shaping the intellectual landscape. Their big-picture thinking laid the groundwork for Western philosophy, yet even then, we see the seeds of repression. Socrates, after all, was put to death for his questioning of societal norms.
As empires rose and fell, the valued forms of intelligence shifted. The Roman Empire prized military and administrative intelligence, while the Islamic Golden Age celebrated mathematical and scientific brilliance. The Renaissance saw a resurgence of artistic and humanistic intelligence, with polymaths like Leonardo da Vinci embodying the ideal of the well-rounded genius.
But with each shift, a pattern emerged. The ruling class would initially embrace and elevate certain forms of intelligence that served their interests. Once these geniuses had provided the innovations and ideas needed to solidify power, the elite would then move to control and limit access to knowledge, ensuring their continued dominance.
The Industrial Revolution and the Rise of Standardization
The Industrial Revolution marked a significant turning point in this cycle. As mass production became the norm, a new form of intelligence rose to prominence: the ability to conform, to follow instructions, and to perform repetitive tasks efficiently. This shift gave birth to our modern educational system, designed not to nurture creativity and big-picture thinking, but to produce reliable workers for factories and offices.
This standardization of intelligence had profound effects on society. The middle class, once a bastion of craftspeople and independent thinkers, was reshaped into a workforce of detail-oriented, rule-following individuals who excelled at maintaining the status quo. Meanwhile, the creative, intuitive thinkers found themselves increasingly marginalized.
The Systematic Suppression of 2e Individuals
Twice-exceptional (2e) individuals possess exceptional abilities in multiple domains, often displaying a unique combination of high-level cognitive skills, creative thinking, and intuitive understanding. However, our current educational system is not merely ill-equipped to recognize these gifts — it is deliberately designed to deny and suppress them.
This suppression is not an accident or an oversight. It is a calculated strategy embedded in the very foundation of our educational institutions. The system, rooted in the Prussian model of education, was created with the explicit goal of producing obedient workers and soldiers, not free-thinking innovators. It is precisely because the system recognizes the potential power of 2e individuals that it works so hard to constrain them.
By teaching to the average and enforcing rigid standards of conformity, the education system actively works to stifle the exceptional abilities of 2e individuals. It’s not that these gifts go unnoticed; rather, they are identified and then systematically undermined. Divergent thinking is labeled as disruptive, intense focus on areas of interest is seen as a lack of attention to prescribed curricula, and unique problem-solving approaches are discouraged in favor of standardized methods.
This deliberate suppression serves multiple purposes:
1. Maintaining Control: By denying the validity of diverse cognitive styles, the system ensures that power remains concentrated in the hands of those who define “normal” intelligence.
2. Preserving the Status Quo: Truly exceptional thinkers have the potential to challenge existing power structures. By suppressing these individuals, the system protects itself from fundamental change.
3. Creating Artificial Scarcity: By denying widespread recognition of exceptional abilities, the system creates an artificial scarcity of “genius,” allowing those in power to selectively elevate only those individuals who serve their interests.
4. Enforcing Conformity: The system is designed to produce predictable, manageable workers. 2e individuals, with their unique perspectives and abilities, represent a threat to this uniformity.
The tragedy of this system is that it forces many 2e individuals to hide their abilities, to “dumb themselves down” to fit in, or to struggle against labels of disability or disorder. Those who can’t or won’t conform often find themselves marginalized, their potential contributions to society lost.
This isn’t a failure of the system — it’s the system working exactly as it was designed. The challenge we face is not in fixing a broken system, but in dismantling and replacing a system that is fundamentally at odds with nurturing the full spectrum of human potential.
The Diverse Nature of 2e Individuals
It’s crucial to understand that 2e individuals aren’t just big-picture thinkers. Their exceptional abilities can manifest in various ways, depending on their unique neurological makeup and sensitivities. Some may excel at processing vast amounts of information and seeing overarching patterns, while others might have an extraordinary ability to focus on minute details. Many can do both, switching between macro and micro perspectives with remarkable fluidity.
The nature of their exceptionality is influenced by several factors:
Sensitivity Level: 2e individuals often have heightened sensitivities, which can be physical, emotional, or cognitive. The degree and type of sensitivity play a crucial role in shaping their cognitive strengths.
Cognitive Processing: The balance between big-picture thinking and detail-oriented focus varies among 2e individuals.
Somatic vs. Cognitive Intelligence: Some 2e individuals may have exceptional bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, while others might have extraordinary logical-mathematical abilities. Many combine both in unique ways.
Information Processing Capacity: The amount of information a 2e individual can process, whether it’s big-picture concepts or small details, depends on their cognitive capacity and how it interacts with their areas of sensitivity.
This diversity among 2e individuals is precisely what makes them so valuable — and so misunderstood by our current educational system. The system, designed for uniformity, fails to recognize and nurture these varied expressions of exceptionality. Instead, it often misinterprets these traits as deficits or disabilities.
The Prussian Education System and the Manipulation of 2e Connections
The manipulation of twice-exceptional (2e) individuals extends beyond mere suppression. There’s a more nuanced, cyclical pattern at play, rooted in the Prussian education system that forms the basis of many modern educational structures. This system, designed to produce obedient workers and soldiers, has been adept at controlling not just what is taught, but how individuals interact and form communities.
Throughout history, those in power have recognized that 2e individuals, when allowed to connect and collaborate, can be incredibly powerful forces for change and innovation. This potential has been both feared and, at times, harnessed for specific purposes.
Cycles of Connection and Isolation
There have been periods when 2e individuals were allowed, even encouraged, to find each other and collaborate. These periods often coincided with times of great need or crisis, such as during wartime or periods of rapid technological advancement. During World War II, for instance, governments actively sought out and brought together diverse thinkers to work on projects like code-breaking or developing new technologies.
However, these periods of connection are typically followed by times of restriction and isolation. Once the immediate need has passed, systems are put in place to disperse these communities of exceptional thinkers. This can take many forms:
Physical Separation: Reassigning individuals to different departments or locations.
Intellectual Restriction: Limiting access to information or resources that facilitate collaboration.
Social Stigmatization: Promoting narratives that paint non-conformist thinking as problematic or anti-social.
Bureaucratic Barriers: Implementing rules and structures that make it difficult for like-minded individuals to work together.
The goal of this cyclical connection and isolation is multifaceted:
Control Innovation: By controlling when and how 2e individuals collaborate, those in power can direct innovation towards their own ends.
Prevent Challenges to Authority: Keeping 2e thinkers isolated reduces the likelihood of them collectively challenging existing power structures.
Maintain the Status Quo: Restricting ongoing collaboration helps maintain the narrative that exceptional thinking is rare and should be controlled.
The Prussian Legacy
The Prussian education system, with its emphasis on standardization and obedience, provides the perfect framework for this manipulation. It creates an environment where:
Conformity is rewarded and divergent thinking is punished.
Standardized testing and grading systems make it easy to identify and separate individuals.
Rigid schedules and curricula limit opportunities for organic collaboration.
Hierarchical structures discourage peer-to-peer learning and idea-sharing.
This system, adopted by many countries worldwide, effectively keeps 2e individuals isolated within a sea of enforced averageness. It allows for the identification and selective nurturing of exceptional abilities when needed, while generally suppressing them to maintain social control.
The Selective Elevation of Genius
Even in this repressive environment, some geniuses were allowed to flourish — but only in carefully controlled domains. Take Albert Einstein, for example. His revolutionary ideas in physics were celebrated because they aligned with the technological and military interests of the powerful. His pacifist views and critiques of capitalism, however, were largely ignored or suppressed.
Similarly, Dr. Temple Grandin’s insights into animal behavior were valued because they served the interests of the agricultural industry. Her advocacy for neurodiversity and alternative forms of intelligence, while influential, has faced more resistance in changing broader societal attitudes.
These examples illustrate a crucial point: genius is only allowed to rise when it serves the interests of the elite. Big-picture thinkers in the humanities, who might challenge the very structures of society, face far more obstacles. We haven’t seen a Freud or Jung emerge in mental health since their time — not because such geniuses don’t exist, but because the system is designed to suppress them.
The Age Gap in Big-Picture Thinking
This suppression has led to a noticeable age gap in big-picture thinkers. The prominent researchers who have contributed to our understanding of sensitivity and diverse intelligences — Elaine Aron, Michael Pluess, Kazimierz Dabrowski, Gabor Maté, Howard Gardner — all belong to older generations. Where are their younger counterparts?
The answer lies in the systemic exclusion of 2e individuals and other big-picture thinkers from educational and professional pathways. Our current systems, designed to produce conformity, are actively hostile to those who think differently. These potential geniuses are often misdiagnosed, their gifts overlooked, and their challenges pathologized. Many are pushed out of academia or traditional career paths, their voices silenced before they can reach a broader audience.
The AI Revolution and the Need for Change
Now, we stand on the brink of another major shift. The rise of artificial intelligence is poised to replace many of the cognitive, detail-oriented tasks that our current system values. The conformist, rule-following workers, once the backbone of our workforce, may soon find themselves obsolete. This presents both a crisis and an opportunity.
The crisis is clear: if we continue to suppress big-picture thinking and integrated intelligence, we risk creating a society unable to adapt to the rapid changes brought by AI and other emerging challenges. The opportunity, however, is equally significant: this could be our chance to break the cycle, to create new systems that value and nurture the full spectrum of human intelligence.
Breaking the Cycle: A New Paradigm
To break this cycle, we need to radically rethink our approach to education, work, and societal values. We need to create spaces that recognize and nurture diverse forms of intelligence, particularly the integrated intelligence of 2e individuals. This means:
Redesigning Education: Moving away from standardized testing and rigid curricula towards flexible, personalized learning that allows each individual to develop their unique gifts.
Valuing Infra-cognition: Recognizing the power of intuitive, embodied knowledge alongside traditional cognitive skills.
Creating New Communities: Developing spaces outside traditional institutions where big-picture thinkers can collaborate, innovate, and share their insights without the constraints of outdated systems.
Embracing Neurodiversity: Seeing neurological differences not as disorders to be cured, but as valuable variations in human cognition.
Fostering Interdisciplinary Thinking: Encouraging connections across fields, recognizing that the most innovative solutions often come from unexpected combinations of knowledge.
The Role of the Creative Class
In this paradigm shift, the creative class — our 2e individuals, our big-picture thinkers — have a crucial role to play. They are the ones who can see beyond the current system, who can envision and create new structures that are more adaptable, more inclusive, and more capable of addressing the complex challenges of our time.
This is not a new role for creatives. Throughout history, when systems collapse, it has been the creative class that steps up to imagine and build new ways of living and working. But this time, armed with the knowledge of past cycles and the power of integrated intelligence, we have the opportunity to create something truly revolutionary.
Breaking the Cycle of Manipulation
Recognizing the cyclical nature of connection and isolation imposed on 2e individuals is the first step in breaking this pattern. 2e individuals, aware of this manipulation, can actively seek out like-minded peers and create their own communities of support and collaboration. In the digital age, this has become easier, with online platforms allowing for connections that transcend physical and institutional boundaries.
However, true change requires a fundamental restructuring of our educational and social systems. We need to create environments that not only allow but actively encourage diverse thinkers to connect, collaborate, and innovate continuously — not just when it serves the interests of those in power.
By fostering ongoing communities of 2e individuals, we can tap into a constant stream of creativity and problem-solving capability. This could lead to breakthroughs in science, technology, arts, and social structures that we desperately need to address the complex challenges of our time.
Conclusion: The Future of Intelligence
As we move forward, we must remain vigilant against the forces that seek to control and suppress diverse forms of intelligence. The cycle of valuing and devaluing certain intellectual gifts is deeply ingrained in our societal structures and breaking it will require conscious effort and radical re-imagining of our institutions.
But the potential rewards are immense. By nurturing the full spectrum of human intelligence — from detail-oriented, analytical thinking to big-picture, intuitive understanding, from cognitive prowess to somatic wisdom — we can create a society that is more innovative, more adaptable, and more capable of solving the complex problems we face.
This shift may be facilitated as those currently in positions of power begin to recognize their diminishing intellectual value in an AI-driven world. By working with those who have been previously oppressed, they can contribute to healing and acceptance of all types of intellectual gifts. This collaboration is crucial as we strive to break the deeply ingrained cycle of competition and move towards a model of cooperation and mutual support. Indeed, such collaboration may be our only path to effectively address the ecological challenges we face.
The future no longer belongs to those who can perform repetitive tasks or follow rules without question, but to those who can integrate different forms of knowledge, who can see patterns across disciplines, who can envision new possibilities where others see only obstacles. It belongs to the big-picture thinkers, the integrated intelligences, the twice-exceptional individuals who have been marginalized for too long.
By breaking the cycle of repression and control, by valuing all forms of intelligence, we can unleash the full potential of human creativity and cognition. In doing so, we may just find the solutions to our most pressing global challenges, and create a world that is more just, more sustainable, and more aligned with the true capabilities of the human mind and spirit.
The potential of 2e individuals, when allowed to freely connect and collaborate, is immense. It’s time to break the cycle of manipulation and create systems that nurture this potential for the benefit of all, not just the select few in positions of power. Only then can we hope to address the complex, interconnected challenges of our rapidly changing world and build a future that harnesses the full spectrum of human intelligence and creativity.
As we stand at this critical juncture, each of us has a role to play in fostering this new paradigm. Whether you’re an educator, a parent, a leader, or a 2e individual yourself, your actions can contribute to building a world that truly values and nurtures the full spectrum of human potential. The time for change is now, and the future we create depends on our collective willingness to embrace and cultivate the diverse intelligences among us.
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