Is It Bad to Be Intelligent? Watership Down and Dream of the Red Chamber Shed Light on This Question
Some unconventional opinions about smart people
Being intelligent is a great advantage, right?
I almost never hear someone use “clever,” “smart,” or “bright” as an insult. In contrast, “dumb,” “stupid,” and “idiot” are usually criticisms or attacks.
And who wouldn’t want to be smart? People respect you, your friends value your opinions, and you can come up with creative solutions to your problems.
But what if I told you that being highly intelligent can be a bad thing?
The Smartest Rabbit in Watership Down, Blackberry
*spoilers below*
Blackberry is a bunny with black-tipped ears. The other rabbits, especially the leader, Hazel, respect and look to him for clever strategies to their problems.
A notable example was during their journey to escape their warren. Hazel’s brother Fiver, had a prophetic vision that their warren would be doomed and they had to leave. (We learn much later that land developers would destroy the warren, smoke out the remaining rabbits and kill them all.)
