Thinking Inside The Box

鏈接中文版本：創意與中庸

Calling ourselves Homo Sapiens — literally wise man — has to be either missed irony, or hyperbolic self-flattery. Even dummies know that the average human is far from wise. Quite the contrary, whenever life is good, most of our species take petulant pride in not thinking. Behind dainty expressions of ostentatious innocence and unworldliness is an unmentionable awareness that being really stupid without consequence is a modern privilege, a rich-folk thing, a secretly adored social status. Sure, during our negligibly short existence, the odd thinking specimens might have had delivered us from collective troubles, or led us to more favourable grounds for survival. But mass ignorance has since been reinforced, making such rare fortuitous events ever less likely in the future.

創意與中庸

LINK TO ENGLISH VERSION: Thinking Inside The Box

人類自稱「智人」，真的有點兒自誇，因為連傻瓜也知道，一般人的智慧很有限。而我們智慧不高，並非完全由於天分所限，很多人根本不喜歡也看不起思考。經濟環境許可的時候，無知是顯示家底的手段之一；一無所知，笨手笨腳，波鞋帶不會綁，荷包蛋不會煎，是富貴人家孩子的身分象徵，比穿名牌更體面。當然，在人類短短的歷史裡，曾經出現過異常聰明人士把我們集體帶出困境，或帶來思想突破。但這些真智人是極少數，毫不典型，當時也不一定得到大眾的認同。所以叫人類「好彩人」，可能比「智人」更貼切。但人類在地球史裡只不過是幾秒鐘前出現的物種而已，幸運能持續多久，有待觀察。