TheRealMafoo said:
How about a law degree from Harvard? I have no doubt Obama is a smart man, but that does not make his politics right for this country. |
I have no doubt that Obama is probably a smart man, but being an eloquent speaker or having degrees from an ivy-league college are not signs of (unusually) high intelligence.
Many of us have probably met people who were excellent at memorizing facts, and then repeating these facts when necessary, but have little or no ability to apply any concept that they have "learned." These people are not necessarily smart or dumb but they excel in many fields of academic study.
Now, if you study Neuro-Linguistic Programming you will learn about many of the “Tricks” that eloquent speakers use (either consciously or unconsciously). A well know trick that some of the most eloquent speakers use is using abstract concepts rather than concrete example because people will agree with abstract concepts but may not agree with the concrete example; essentially, if you are telling people that you will provide ‘Hope’, ‘Change’ or ‘Equality’ most people are going to agree that those are worthwhile goals, but if you talk about what you mean by ‘Hope’, ‘Change’ or ‘Equality’ far more people are going to disagree with you. If you're not saying anything of any real substance, how would this be a sign of your high intelligence?
