A Small Piece of the Big Picture

Oscar Browning, a one time big wig at Cambridge, was
reported to say "'that the impression left on his mind,
after looking over any set of examination papers, was
that irrespective of the marks he might give, the best
woman was intellectually the inferior of the worst man.'"

-from A Room of One's Own, by Virginia Woolf

To which I would say, "so what?" if it were true.

Now...even if it was to be true (and I am sure there would
be many now who would dispute that fact many different
ways) it doesn't say how he came to that conclusion.

It sounds extraordinarily subjective. It is interesting
to note at the time, though, it didn't seem to be a
totally unique way of looking at women.

But one might take this argument and replace men and
women for races, ages, all kinds of things, things that,
perhaps, seem more "acceptable" for our world today.

(For that matter, intellectual abilities could also be
replaced with some other quality as well. It is an
all purpose equation)

Still...I say just because someone is deemed intellectually
inferior to another, does it mean that they should ne
looked down upon by others? Sadly (in my opinion) I
believe there are those who would say so. However, I
would need to need to object to the idea, as there are
wonderful people in the world that come in all shapes and
sizes and with various IQs that should never be treated in
an inferior way.

Everyone has something to offer. They just might offer it
differently. Viewing different as inferior somehow seems
to fail to take that into consideration.

However...any argument can be held ad infinitum, so as
usual I will say a few things, and pose a few questions in
the desire to possibly stir up a few thoughts one might
consider.

I think sometimes that people don't realize that they're
often focusing on things that truly, in the end, are of
little consequence to the big picture. This is not to
say that the small picture is unimportant, but rather...

Is it possible that
the things that some
people see as
important only get
in the way of the things
that truly are?