On intellectual commodification
I suppose the title might have alienated some people already, or maybe they just don't know what I'm on about. It's not a frequently-used term, and I've only seen it referred to in the context of the commodification of education and ideas (fuck capitalism with a shovel). Here, I use it to refer to the view of intelligence itself as a commodity when separated from a person. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think that smart people get a bit of a shitty deal. Unless you take great pains to downplay your intelligence to fit in and act as society expects you to act, you're bullied, ostracised, and feared, because smart people are different and have the potential to do great things if they're allowed to, which they're not, because smart people and systems not designed to allow people to reach their full potential don't mix. You're isolated, too; nobody will touch you with a ten-foot bargepole because you're so different, yet you can see just h...