Samizdata

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

The world is full of belligerent numbskulls; frequently, the more ignorant, the more belligerent.

It is a soppy, and dangerous, progressive cliché that lack of self-esteem among the indigent and the criminal is a cause of poor social integration. There’s actually no evidence that the indigent and the criminal do have low self-esteem. On the contrary in fact, they tend to have rather too much of it.

Yeats got that. Polly Toynbee gets it too. Charles Darwin wrote, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”

While this is distressing for the world’s more sentimental do-gooders, and seems to have had no impact at all on the growing self-esteem industry, it is an important observation, having great explanatory power, and not just for the history of idea. It is, I submit, at the core of such diverse social phenomena as gangstas, bling, Islamism, dangerous driving, the bullying petty official, the modern media health scare, the conspiracy theorist, and large chunks of the content of the web. Combined with the tendency for the assertive and persistent to get their own way, because others can’t bear endless futile arguments, it is much more than a marginal nastiness. Which is distressing even to the unsentimental.

What is more, there is a rational explanation. Dunning and Kruger, the Cornell psychologists who often get the credit for establishing that the least competent are most likely to overestimate their own competence – and hence (I paraphrase broadly) that idiots contribute most to the fundamental fuckedupness of the world – note that “the skills that engender competence in a particular domain are often the very same skills necessary to evaluate competence in that domain—one’s own or anyone else’s.” (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1999, Vol. 77, No. 6 – no link because the copy I read online was probably infringing.) They assert that the syndrome can be cured by education. But I suspect that’s just liberal optimism speaking. Those convinced of their own superiority are the least likely to accept tutoring. (My esteemed co-professional “Dr Hibbert” has it right, for all practical purposes, below.)

Which is all by way of introduction to one of the most farcical correspondences of my professional lives. The writer proclaimed he was going to expose it to the tabloids, so can hardly object to its reproduction here. Enjoy.

From: “kyriacos kyprou”
To: [many of the world’s better known literary agents]
Subject: Kyriacos Kyprou – Greatest Mind Ever
Date: Mon, 05 Mar 2007 22:31:06 +0000

…below is the email I sent out to the recipients that this email also went out to.

…and there is nothing, at all, delusional with the claims I make, in that email, which implies those claims can well, be supported. And the points I make are totally valid points.

…following my email below are some of the replies I received, in this high democracy you all preach.

…two points – firstly the ruthless attack on my sanity and intelligence by an idiot calling himself julius.hibbert@hotmail.com (an pseudo email account, using a psychologist cartoon character from ‘The Simpsons’) are totally unfounded, but more notably, completely unprovoked.

…secondly they are replies that completely intrude my democratic rights – which implies are the claims I make exempt from the freedom of expression that democracy preaches? But more notably I do not take too well to the ruthless comments made about my intelligence and sanity. I am more than likely the greatest mind ever on this planet and I will make that claim if I choose to make it (especially when it is a claim that I can well support). And you can all stick your modesty. As if you all have something to teach about modesty. What you all refer to as the third world will tell you all about it. And if there is a third world then what does that make all of you – first, second or premier league? There is no third world – there is only the neglect billions endure.

…I also make the point that the house policy rules of the publishing world cannot also apply for a book like mine, because this is a book that needs to published. But the publishing world wants to play ‘we rule’ and ‘untouchable’ games with me.

…but also wants to throw a few humiliating tactics and insults my way – and it seems they are at total liberty to let themselves go, with any form of expression, it takes their fancy.

…and it seems I am supposed to accept that attitude, insults and humiliation.

…maybe I don’t want to accept it.

→ Continue reading: Doctor Bickle, I presume