It is sometimes said that our biggest problem, the biggest obstacle to saving Western civilisation, is the midwit. The midwit has several attributes, but the one that gives him his name is that he is brighter than average. An IQ of 110 would make him
At present, midwits occupy the lowest stratum of the intelligentsia, and so, like members of the bottom layer of any social class, live in constant fear of "losing caste." Paul Fussell, please call your answering service. https://extramuros.substack.com/p/college-and-class
Brilliant, especially the part about how midwits can't acknowledge someone as genuinely intelligent unless they hold midwit opinions.
The midwit can adopt e.g. a mainstream media talking point, or an entire ideology, but he can't defend or even explain it. It's like he's wearing an ornate hat but it's much too big, so he can't move naturally without it falling off.
Vox Day's Gamma category, in his sociosexual hierarchy, is usually higher than average IQ, so there's a lot of overlap.
May 28, 2023·edited May 28, 2023Liked by Millennial Woes
I've never really liked the midwit meme, because most politically engaged people are midwits, regardless of their beliefs, including people in fringe politics. The real problem is smart people who switch their brains off when they encounter any idea that's off the establishment's reservation. And if you're going to bake all kinds of non-intelligence-related terms into the definition of midwit, like courage or honesty, you might as well just say "dishonourable people," "cowards," "conformists," etc.
For me, the defining characteristic of a midwit isn't their IQ but their overestimation of their IQ, as this manifests in their grating arrogance.
Women often think they're smarter than they are, I think because they're evolved to talk to small children and even a dumb woman is smarter than a 5-year-old. But apart from women, the midwit seems to occupy that zone of "top of the class till he was 18", just smart enough to get good exam results, not smart enough to get a 1st at a decent university.
Genuinely intelligent people are usually aware of how much they don't understand or haven't mastered. You find occasional casual arrogance among geniuses but if you think of e.g. Wittgenstein debating maths with Alan Turing, or logic with Bertrand Russell, at that level you don't strut around thinking you're smarter than everyone, because you regularly encounter your peers, or even those who outclass you (think of CS Lewis being trounced by Elizabeth Anscombe in a 1948 debate, for example).
May 28, 2023·edited May 28, 2023Liked by Millennial Woes
Another part of the problem is that the system strongly and continually encourages midwitism and intellectual fads: the paradigm of this in the US is John Oliver, the Comedy Channel, and NPR, endlessly affirming the superior status of the in-group and low status of the out-group. They repeatedly mock the lower statuses and maintain and report the current rules and opinions required for continued membership of the middle tier.
Through these machines the system has become expert in quickly reacting to events and able to consign unacceptable and dissident views to the low status tier. Ukraine was their finest episode yet, I think. Elon is now repeatedly associated with Trump: he is now low status. The current wave of anti-trans activism will soon be vehemently consigned to low status. The midwits will fall in line. It works every time.
Julius Evola referred to this kind of behaviour as 'intellectual stupidity': "That which has been observed with regard to people who always follow fashion, also applies to today’s public: they are ridiculous from fear of seeming ridiculous. They passively allow their opinions to be prompted and manipulated, they do not dare to openly express what they think and feel for fear of being accused of being philistines or fools, once a verdict has been passed by the pontificators of “criticism” on such and such a work of contemporary art or literature."
Evola is right that our culture's obsession with intellectual fashions is not an arbitrary characteristic of the times: it proceeds directly from the rejection of tradition. I think one can sum it up by calling it the exile of wisdom and its replacement by mere intelligence.
The traditional class structure contained the midwit by allowing him to perform a useful function that suited his natural competence, up to school head master, bank manager, etc. He understood his place in the hierarchy and was not free to entertain delusions of grandeur.
I haven't yet read The Populist Delusion, but have read a synopsis and believe I have digested enough of AA's work to understand its key points. I believe that this dovetails nicely with those ideas, and demonstrates the main problems with democracy.
Midwits compose the horde of the managerial class and thus the middle class. They are the bureaucrats and yes-men. There was a video I watched recently that asked "why are the Middle Class so left wing?" And here we have our answer, I believe.
The midwit is an NPC and will follow the current zeitgeist. The elites in power set the tone for the midwit, and currently that elite is dead-set on a sort of globalist communism .Except it's not real "communism" of course, because such a thing was never intended to exist; it was always a means for the elite to consolidate power while convincing the proletariat that they were being empowered (as they were made slaves instead).
So there IS a solution to the midwit problem, but that solution means that the elite must be replaced (clear them out) with a truly rightist regime. That ain't going to be easy, but if the course of history informs us of anything, it's that the current paradigm cannot be permanent, and something's gotta give sometime.
Thank you,excellent article.
At present, midwits occupy the lowest stratum of the intelligentsia, and so, like members of the bottom layer of any social class, live in constant fear of "losing caste." Paul Fussell, please call your answering service. https://extramuros.substack.com/p/college-and-class
Yes, a great essay. Thank you.
Brilliant, especially the part about how midwits can't acknowledge someone as genuinely intelligent unless they hold midwit opinions.
The midwit can adopt e.g. a mainstream media talking point, or an entire ideology, but he can't defend or even explain it. It's like he's wearing an ornate hat but it's much too big, so he can't move naturally without it falling off.
Vox Day's Gamma category, in his sociosexual hierarchy, is usually higher than average IQ, so there's a lot of overlap.
I've never really liked the midwit meme, because most politically engaged people are midwits, regardless of their beliefs, including people in fringe politics. The real problem is smart people who switch their brains off when they encounter any idea that's off the establishment's reservation. And if you're going to bake all kinds of non-intelligence-related terms into the definition of midwit, like courage or honesty, you might as well just say "dishonourable people," "cowards," "conformists," etc.
For me, the defining characteristic of a midwit isn't their IQ but their overestimation of their IQ, as this manifests in their grating arrogance.
Women often think they're smarter than they are, I think because they're evolved to talk to small children and even a dumb woman is smarter than a 5-year-old. But apart from women, the midwit seems to occupy that zone of "top of the class till he was 18", just smart enough to get good exam results, not smart enough to get a 1st at a decent university.
Genuinely intelligent people are usually aware of how much they don't understand or haven't mastered. You find occasional casual arrogance among geniuses but if you think of e.g. Wittgenstein debating maths with Alan Turing, or logic with Bertrand Russell, at that level you don't strut around thinking you're smarter than everyone, because you regularly encounter your peers, or even those who outclass you (think of CS Lewis being trounced by Elizabeth Anscombe in a 1948 debate, for example).
What I recognise from this great article is that a midwit is basically a typical narcissist.
Superb psychoanalysis of the pseudointellectualism subverting our civilization.
Another part of the problem is that the system strongly and continually encourages midwitism and intellectual fads: the paradigm of this in the US is John Oliver, the Comedy Channel, and NPR, endlessly affirming the superior status of the in-group and low status of the out-group. They repeatedly mock the lower statuses and maintain and report the current rules and opinions required for continued membership of the middle tier.
Through these machines the system has become expert in quickly reacting to events and able to consign unacceptable and dissident views to the low status tier. Ukraine was their finest episode yet, I think. Elon is now repeatedly associated with Trump: he is now low status. The current wave of anti-trans activism will soon be vehemently consigned to low status. The midwits will fall in line. It works every time.
Julius Evola referred to this kind of behaviour as 'intellectual stupidity': "That which has been observed with regard to people who always follow fashion, also applies to today’s public: they are ridiculous from fear of seeming ridiculous. They passively allow their opinions to be prompted and manipulated, they do not dare to openly express what they think and feel for fear of being accused of being philistines or fools, once a verdict has been passed by the pontificators of “criticism” on such and such a work of contemporary art or literature."
Evola is right that our culture's obsession with intellectual fashions is not an arbitrary characteristic of the times: it proceeds directly from the rejection of tradition. I think one can sum it up by calling it the exile of wisdom and its replacement by mere intelligence.
Always a good day when Woes posts. Can't help but think of Pope's words here
A little learning is a dang’rous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fir’d at first sight with what the Muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,
While from the bounded level of our mind,
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind,
But more advanc’d, behold with strange surprise
New, distant scenes of endless science rise!
The traditional class structure contained the midwit by allowing him to perform a useful function that suited his natural competence, up to school head master, bank manager, etc. He understood his place in the hierarchy and was not free to entertain delusions of grandeur.
I haven't yet read The Populist Delusion, but have read a synopsis and believe I have digested enough of AA's work to understand its key points. I believe that this dovetails nicely with those ideas, and demonstrates the main problems with democracy.
Midwits compose the horde of the managerial class and thus the middle class. They are the bureaucrats and yes-men. There was a video I watched recently that asked "why are the Middle Class so left wing?" And here we have our answer, I believe.
The midwit is an NPC and will follow the current zeitgeist. The elites in power set the tone for the midwit, and currently that elite is dead-set on a sort of globalist communism .Except it's not real "communism" of course, because such a thing was never intended to exist; it was always a means for the elite to consolidate power while convincing the proletariat that they were being empowered (as they were made slaves instead).
So there IS a solution to the midwit problem, but that solution means that the elite must be replaced (clear them out) with a truly rightist regime. That ain't going to be easy, but if the course of history informs us of anything, it's that the current paradigm cannot be permanent, and something's gotta give sometime.
You described my ex-boss perfectly.