Avoiding the Dim Bulb
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While I hesitate to comment on my intellect I can at least say that I've tried to learn as I went along and not allow my life to become some never ending stream of repeated mistakes ... unlike some I used to tolerate in my midst.
Appreciation of the fact that it takes all kinds of individuals to make a world hasn't always sufficed in my existence. There have been times when I wanted to kill people I believed to be stupid. Acquaintances, family members — it didn't make any difference.
Tolerance was something I had to grow into. That sum total of who we are is based on a bunch of highs and lows existing in the same universe. And then there is Iceland.
Iceland claims to be eliminating a genetic defect from their population by aborting pregnancies where the conceived suffers from things like trisomy-21 ... the common origin of Down Syndrome.
I am left with a quandry involving the right to life of an individual compared to the right of a society to eliminate individuals they consider to be "defective". Having met a number of persons with Down Syndrome I have found many of them to be preferable as company and in fact some of them exibit insights to living that I in all my "superiority" have overlooked.
Most of all it is their appreciation for life which causes me the greatest pause. After all, when a person is filled with wonder for the world and can conduct their activities of daily living appropriately who am I to say their life is not worth living?
Eugenics not withstanding, I personally continue to cohabitate, engage when the occasion arises, and refrain from judging anyone for their intellect or lack thereof.