Skip to main content

Your face shines like the moon




The origin of the art of flattery goes back to time immemorial.  Kings used to keep flatterers in their courts and reward them with treasures for their efforts to make the kings appear greater than they were.  It seems that kings generally suffered from acute inferiority complex which had to be cured with flattery in addition to accoutrements like shiny robes and golden crown.

It’s not only kings of the bygone days that craved for flattery, their later counterparts also seem to lap it up earnestly.  Most people in power seem to love flatterers.  Is it because the desire for power and  inferiority complex are two sides of the same coin? 

Whatever that be, it seems that the ability to flatter those in power is a valuable life skill.  The benefits one can derive using this art skilfully may not be insignificant at all.  In fact, it is much more useful than intelligence or what is generally known as IQ.

Robert Sternberg, psychologist, defined practical intelligence as a skill that enables one to ascend the ladder of success. In his own words, practical intelligence is “knowing what to say to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect.” [Emphasis added]

Maximum effect can be interpreted variously.  For most people, I guess, it would mean personal benefits.  Hence, for most people, practical intelligence may not be much different from flattery when it comes to their dealings with people in power. 

High IQ is of not much use as far as success in the world of practical affairs is concerned.  Psychologist Lewis Terman had proved it (much against his will) in the first half of the 20th century – before Sternberg spoke about practical intelligence. Terman was a worshipper of IQ.  “There is nothing about an individual as important as his IQ, except possibly his morals,” declared Terman before he set out to make an elaborate study of 1470 students identified from 250,000 elementary and high school students.  Terman’s chosen students all had an IQ between 140 and 200.  That is, they were all geniuses.  Terman’s assistants followed these geniuses as they grew up with the fidelity of a dog. 

Very few of these geniuses went on to make remarkable careers.  Some published books and scholarly articles, some others thrived in business and a few others went on to occupy some important public offices.  The vast majority of them had careers that could only be considered ordinary.  A surprising number of them ended up with careers which Terman considered failures.  Not one of them won any Nobel Prize whereas two of the students rejected in Terman’s selection process won the Nobel later – William Shockley and Luis Alvarez. 

That is to say, it is not high IQ that brings success in the world of practical affairs.  One needs practical intelligence.  Today’s Indian educational system has realised this and has included many non-scholastic skills in the curriculum.  “Life skills” are mentioned specifically in the assessment form for students.  They refer to thinking skills, social skills and emotional skills. 

Long ago, when I was a student, the educators didn’t think of such skills.  Or maybe they did.  When I was in class 5 or 6 the example that I was taught for simile was: “O King, your face shines like the moon.”  I remember all my siblings learning the same example.  Probably that was meant to be a lesson in flattery.  This example for simile was probably chosen in order to teach us how to flatter those in power though there were no royal kings in our times. 

The problem with many students like me is that we failed to learn the lessons except for the exams.  Our mistake was to think like Terman that only the IQ and the morals mattered really.  By the time I learnt about Sternberg and his practical intelligence I became too old to learn new tricks particularly those like flattery.  So I have chosen to be contented with standing on the sideline and watching the courtiers singing paeans as they move up and up... Believe me, there’s much fun in this exercise too.


Comments


  1. Misfired practical intelligences:

    “You are by far the best looking”-your face shines like the moon all these praises mend to flatter .But flattery tends to make a storm –look at the Indian Politicians praising the beauty of women in appropriately(Maharashtra /Madhya Pradesh incidents ) -the unfortunate comment made to the kabbadi coach causing her lose her wits and consciousness ,and lately the strongest man President Barack Obama describing Kamala Harris as "by far the best-looking" AG of all.This is practical intelligence the other way around. Should they have apologized for causing “distraction”?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is also part of "practical intelligence" to know WHEN to say it! Obama as well as our own leaders failed in this part.

      Delete
  2. It is a good thing kids are taught "life skills". I seriously hope "flattery" is not the only course content. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't worry, they learn quite many more useful life skills than flattery!

      Delete
  3. A nice read and flattery does not take one far unless one decides to live a Crabs life ie pulling each other down or piggybacking on one riding to success!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are institutions where people spend much of their time doing just this: pulling each other down or piggybacking... Of course, such institutions don't go far.

      Delete
  4. Very good advice for today's youth. Look at the very successful Shashi Tharoor. He said Rahul Gandhi's recent speech was 'one of the greatest Indian political speeches of the 20th century!'

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can there be power politics without flattery? Impossible.

      Delete
  5. The best of the lot are inducted as Congress spokespersons.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Every party has them, Purba. Such is politics. Power breeds sycophancy...

      Delete
  6. This blog is pretty good to learn new information, you are doing well. Keep it up!
    https://blog.mindvalley.com/practical-intelligence/

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

Coming-of-Age Poems

Lubna Shibu Book Review Title: Into the Wandering Multiverse Author: Lubna Shibu Publisher: Book Leaf , 2024 Pages: 23 Poetry serves as a profound medium for self-reflection. It offers a canvas where emotions, thoughts, and experiences are distilled into words. Writing poetry is a dive into the depths of one’s consciousness, exploring facets of the poet’s identity and feelings that are often left unspoken. Poets are introverts by nature, I think. Poetry is their way of encountering other people. I was reading Lubna Shibu’s debut anthology of poems while I had a substitution period in a section of grade eleven today at school. One student asked me if she could have a look at the book as I was moving around ensuring discipline while the students were engaged in their regular academic tasks. I gave her the book telling her that the author was a former student in this very classroom just a few years back. I watched the student reading a few poems with some amusement. Then I ask...

How to preach nonviolence

Like most government institutions in India, the Archaeological Survey of India [ASI] has also become a gigantic joke. The national surveyors of India’s famed antiquity go around finding all sorts of Hindu relics in Muslim mosques. Like a Shiv Ling [Lord Shiva’s penis] which may in reality be a rotting piece of a Mughal fountain. One of the recent discoveries of Modi’s national surveyors is that Sambhal in UP is the birthplace of Kalki, the tenth incarnation of God Vishnu. I haven’t understood yet whether Kalki was born in Sambhal at some time in India’s great antique history or Kalki is going to be born in Sambhal at some time in the imminent future. What I know is that Kalki is the final incarnation of Vishnu that is going to put an end to the present wicked Kali Yuga led by people like Modi Inc. Kalki will begin the next era, Satya Yuga, the Era of Truth. So he is yet to be born. But a year back, in Feb to be precise, Modi laid the foundation stone of a temple dedicated to Kalk...

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

The Life of a Courtesan

  Book Review Title: The Last Courtesan: Writing my mother’s memoir Author: Manish Gaekwad Publisher: HarperCollins India, 2023 Pages: 185 Writing the biography of one’s mother who was a courtesan is not quite a pleasant task. Manish Gaekwad undertakes that arduous task in this book and does a fairly eminent job with it. ‘Courtesan’ may not be quite the exact translation of ‘tawaif,’ which is what Rekha, Gaekwad’s mother, was. A courtesan is essentially a sex worker whose clients are wealthy men. But a tawaif is primarily an artiste, a singer of ghazals as well as a dancer. Sex is part of that job, no doubt. When a woman sings lines like Apna bana le meri jaan / Haye re main tere qurbaan [Make me yours, my love / I am your sacrifice] to a man, sex becomes a natural climax of the show. Rekha is a tawaif. She tells her own story in this book. The author writes the narrative as if his mother is telling him her life’s story. Towards the end of the narrative, Rekha asse...