Not too long ago I posted a blog on intelligence — specifically focusing on Dr. Ben Carson. My point was one that most people find odd, just how smart are brain surgeons? My conclusion, which most people also found odd, was “not very — certainly not necessarily.” If you go back and look at the analysis it’s not complicated. The kinds of mental dexterity and knowledge you need to be a surgeon isn’t all that it’s made out to be. You need good sensory-motor coordination, a solid grounding in physiology and anatomy and, critically, an ego the size of Wisconsin. Carson has all of these. But what he lacks is what is typically regarded as true intelligence: the ability to sift complex ideas, to “get” the balance between alternate visions, the capacity for critical thinking and an openness to new ideas and the ability to incororate them into one’s overall grasp of reality.
As the campaign has moved along Carson’s intellectual weaknesses have become more apparent. We first saw it when he denied climate change. It got kicked up a notch when he dismissed Darwinian evolution and got elevated to Trumpian levels when he suggested a “Christian” litmus test for high public office.
But what really knocked my socks off is that even his advisors and managers acknowledge that the great, esteemed, brilliant Dr. Carson is —- an intellectually challenged soul who seems incapable of learning the most basic elements of foreign affairs, an area that, last time I checked, was pretty close to the top of things a President needs to be on top of.
Don’t take it from me, this is from Carson’s foreign affairs advisor:
“Nobody has been able to sit down with him and have him get one iota of intelligent information about the Middle East,” said Duane R. Clarridge, a top adviser to Mr. Carson on terrorism and national security. He also said Mr. Carson needed weekly conference calls briefing him on foreign policy so “we can make him smart.”
Bottom line: You cannot “make” someone smart. The best you can do is to disguise his/her intellectual impoverishment in verbal flummery (are you paying attention Mr. Trump?) or teach them the delicate art of never answering the questions asked (hello, Mr. Cruz?) but when you’re assigned the impossible task of making Carson into someone who can lead the free world …. fuggedaboutit (sorry, lived in Brooklyn for 35 years).