A squint is a condition that affects the eye; what I am talking about is a permanent deviation in the direction of the gaze of one eye. Most people are familiar with it. But what’s new is that people have begun to be affected by what we can call “intellectual squint.”
This refers to the behavior of uneducated and uninformed individuals who lack a sense of understanding and don’t know the meaning of respect and proper behavior.
If you diagnose a person affected by “intellectual squint,” you’ll find clear indications and symptoms. If you talk to the person about anything, he’ll completely misunderstand your point. He listens to what his mind tells him and not to your speech, opinions or ideas. He analyzes things according to his mentality and accuses you of things you never said or even implied. It’s all because he lacks a sense of logical understanding. He tackles the topic through either your personality or he is taking everything personally. His critical comments quickly become personal attacks rather than an analysis of the topic or the idea.
I see many media people and politicians reducing world crises to the level of personal problems.
“Intellectual squint” is not only related to politics but it has spread everywhere. Students fail their courses and then blame their teachers or supervisors. They don’t even attempt to look at the actual reasons that caused them to fail.
The same happens when we observe football fans. They tend to believe that their team’s loss was related to the referee, the coach or perhaps the air in the playground during the match.
I wonder what causes this type of “intellectual squint”?
Perhaps it comes from the increase of illiteracy among people — and what I mean by illiteracy is ignorance of how to negotiate and discuss when it comes to certain topics. Maybe selfishness and egotism might as well be the reasons for such a problem.
Egotism makes a person able to live without needing others. No matter what the reasons, I don’t think that our future will be very bright unless we get rid of this intellectual squint.
