How much Street Credit does a PhD have?

If a PhD in astrophysics were sold in the black market today, how much would it be worth? More or less than a piece of paper with a stamp? Would the words on it increase or lower it's value as recyclable paper? At least the thickness and gsm value of the paper will work in it's favor...

Mindboggling, isn't it?

To think about how worthless the accomplishments of those 'intelligent' and 'wise' are to the man with less privilege. A man who has no time for science and no patience for any kind of study. Who is 'smart' to survive but for whom 'intelligence' is nothing but.... well, a privilege.

It amazes me that while most of us reading/writing this blog fall among the highly intelligent category, the smarties of the world couldn't give more than a rat's ass about us. Seems like a comparison between Phoebe and Ross in FRIENDS. Those who live on the streets, worry about their next meal and a roof over their head that night probably don't care if a cure for cancer or the 119th element in the periodic table was discovered. They probably care if the person on the next street was smarter than them and stole the bench under the newly constructed bridge as their night spot before they could do so. And it might sound insensitive, but in some ways it takes the pressure off.... That somebody, somewhere doesn't, at all, care whether you succeed as a psychologist or not, whether you have a degree or not, whether you got 80% or 95% in 10th gra-- (wait, no one cares about that); is like a huge burden off your chest.

On the other hand, it's also cruel. It's cruel to think that while you are worrying about your science fair project, you actually have the PRIVILEGE TO WORRY ABOUT YOUR SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT. At least you don't have to worry about getting only 100 rupees on the signal today because traffic was slow when you begged. Our worries are their dreams. Our problems their privileges and our hell their heavenly abode. Really puts things into perspective.

Another thing it makes me think about, is whether I'm street smart. I mean sure, I'm intelligent and I know (a+b)2 = a2+b2+2ab, but will I survive outside my house, without my possessions and my money, for even a whole day? Probably, .... actually, most definitely not. I wouldn't. And isn't that something we should rectify immediately? I mean Darwin would turn over in his grave if he knew half the human species can't even survive, let alone be the fittest to survive. Existentialism takes a real hit and the superiority of Homo Sapiens comes into question. Have we evolved so much that the variations among us existing to ensure our survival are now useless? Is luxury our curse and the tool of our destruction. Will the most luxurious, the most intelligent, the cream of the crop, be the first to extinguish themselves in the flames of street life? Or will they be smart enough to endure?

What this truly highlights, however, is what I believe the difference is between 'intelligent' and 'smart'. There are people you meet everyday who might be a lot of the former and barely any of the latter, and yet sometimes you meet those who overwhelm you by how smart they are. Not book knowledge. Just smartness. Mr. Bean kind of smart. Charlie Chaplin kind of smart. Bill Gates kind of smart. The ones who aren't intelligent enough to play one of Beethoven's symphonies on a piano but those who know how to camp in the woods without your tent being blown away, or even if it is, the ones that will figure out how to sleep in a tree. The kind of smart that can hustle and adapt and make their way if they don't get their way.

While I know Einstein was a genius in science, somehow I can never imagine him being able to invent sporks as a hack to eat noodles.... But Mr. Bean, he would invent sporks and then some. Life would be truly simple if humans could just learn how to be smart. Intelligence is overrated anyway....

Just a 11:35 pm thought..... Post yours in the comments :)

Love, Ri.