High intelligence brings the gift of power, and we all know that
power corrupts. When intelligence is corrupted, it brings woe upon our
selves and upon the world. Its impurities reveal themselves in base or
mixed motivation, selfish intentions, pride and the pursuit of power,
self-seeking ambitions, ill will, calculation and manipulation, hypocrisy,
chicanery, cunningness, arrogance, disingenuousness, and secret joy in
the discomfiture of others. These impurities stem more from the cona
tive aspect of intelligence (will, volition, intention) and less from its cog
nitive and reflective side. They contain an instinctual biological
distortion, expressing itself as "What's in it for me and mine?" and con
tempt for others in an "I am right; you are wrong" attitude.
We said that intelligence, by consulting memory, can factor in con
sequences. What intelligence does not do well is pick up on its own
motivations that are quietly infiltrating from ego. To see impurities of
intelligence, just buy six different newspapers on the same day or
watch several different TV news stations. Notice how the same events
come to be reported so differently. This may be simple misperception,
but more likely there is a slant or twist of interpretation that serves the
agenda of the newspaper proprietors. This may be nationalistic because
they have links to a governing party, or it may be a hidden economic
interest. After all, most newspaper owners are by definition rich men,
bent on getting richer. Notice too what is left out and what is included.
We are forced to conclude that the vaunted objectivity of media is too
frequently superficial or hypocritical. This is not because the journal
ists' minds do not function well. They do. It is because there is subver
sion in their intelligence. These are called impurities, and they are very
difficult to detect in ourselves. If we live outwardly virtuous lives, it is
easy to convince ourselves that there is nothing else wrong with us.
Often this is the besetting sin of the puritan or religious fanatic. In our
personal lives, we often both suppress the truth and suggest the false.
Ego aids and abets all flaws of intelligence.
These impurities of intelligence arc the hi�h crimes of humanity,
W I S I H l M 'I II I' I N I' I· I I. H "Ill II I Ill l ll Y I I' I / N .1 N .1 I