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    • Mar 3, 2023
    • 4 min read

Signs of Higher Intelligence

I have always heard the self-important people say, “Anyone who has to use the word ‘fuck’ has a low level of intelligence.” Pomposity in its highest form.


I call BULLSHIT!!!

(Stop for a second and think about my use of the word ‘bullshit’ and how it made you feel)


I believe that the ability to choose the correct word at the right moment to convey a specific and necessary tone – no matter what that word might be – is the highest form of intelligence.


I also believe that any fear of using the right words – for fear of offending someone or being thought of as ignorant – is a truer indication of lower intelligence than using the word ‘fuck’ ever will be.


Words are nothing more than collections of letters, put together in specific patterns to convey specific emotions and feelings. They are nothing more, yet every one of them is necessary at one time or another. Some words make people instantly happy. Some words force the squeamish to cringe. Some words can incite violence and some words can usher a warming love.


And then, some words can force the weak-minded, ever-conforming drones to cower in absolute fear of their use, fear from their sound.


They fear the audience’s reception of their speech before there’s even a need to do so. They fear the possibility of making someone else uncomfortable more than they fear the possibility of their own words being misunderstood.


You made someone else uncomfortable with the words you used?

Then GOOD!

You got your point across with the words you chose to express yourself!

You didn’t have to wave your fists in the air or scream or yell. You used one word that encapsuled all of those meanings and placed it in just the right spot in your sentence, and in doing so, you invoked the exact feeling you sought to induce.

How could that ever be considered low intelligence?


Words are wonderful entities that way. The only real trick is to figure out the best way to arrange them to get your point across, be it in written word or simple conversation.


Here’s a great example. Why has it become necessary – almost a requirement – for novels to exceed three hundred pages to be considered legitimate works worth consideration? Who ever decided that a writer could only be taken seriously if they took ten pages to describe the color blue? I know what blue is. You don’t have to waste hundreds of dry and drifting words to badger the point home. Why don’t you just use the word, ‘azure’ or maybe even ‘turquoise’?

In either example, the only real words to fear are the cow-towing and unnecessary ones.


A somewhat general consensus appears to have formed dictating that there absolutely must be a minimum of words to tell a proper story. And just as harmful, the writer must be properly educated and proper in all his language to tell a proper story worth reading.


I must once again call, BULLSHIT!!!


Some of the most prolific writers throughout history were pretty far removed from the pompous and self-lofted ideals of the proper folks.


Imagine how many more folks would feel that want and desire for reading if stories were just simply told.

It’s wasteful – and, yes, most assuredly a sign of the lowest intelligence – to assume that all written stories must be cluttered with pages and pages of flowery, exorbitant and quite unnecessary rhetoric to be considered literature-worthy.


Why can’t you just tell the story?


Be honest with yourself. Who would you rather hear tell a story – the friendly, half-drunken guy sitting next to you at the bar just wanting to say his piece or a stuffy, self-important blowhard believing that he, and he alone, is capable of teaching you something with his story?


A story is a story is a story. If the words come to you, then write them down and create the story. If you’re reliving a distant memory for the pure, simple joy of its feeling, then tell the story and forget about the fluff. None of us want or need any extra fluff these days.


Yes, you can tell your stories using some “ten dollar” words, but stories are created using all types and forms of words. Some words, like unusually hyphenated ones, are even created just for the story at hand. So what? It doesn’t make the writer any less intelligent by virtue of their use.

If the story is nonsensical gibberish, then yes, you can argue for a lower level of intelligence, but it should never be assumed because the writer or speaker said, ‘fuck’.


It always comes down to a question of the right word to express a specific emotion and invoke the desired feeling in the reader.


A good writer is never made by the use of quarantined and censored words set down by a lofty and self-appointed academia.


A good writer can make the reader feel the words as they’re read without the reader ever knowing what had happened.

A good writer is a story teller.

Anyone that can tell a story – and keep their audience captivated enough to stay through to the end – exhibits one of the highest forms of intelligence attainable.

And when the story is finished, rarely will there ever be a criticism for the use of a specific word. There will more likely be a recounting of the story and the way it was told.


That makes for good story telling.

That makes for good writing.

That is one of the highest praises a story-telling-writer can ever hope to be given.


Use the word that fits best, when it makes sense to fit it in and just tell your story.


Just tell your story.


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