The Root Cause of Societal Collapse

My childhood was perpetually filled with creative people. My parents, both musicians, often hosted gatherings of artists, writers, and performers. At each event a recurring theme emerged: the struggle of the creative mind in a world that seemed increasingly indifferent, if not hostile, to their contributions. Each person laid out what became a very clear window into how our systems exploited and marginalized the most creatively intelligent.

They were very clear about it’s origin. “They’ve changed the game. The schools, the institutions. They made them so they work against us.” Everyone in the room nodded in solemn agreement. These weren’t struggling artists or disgruntled outsiders, these were individuals of profound talent and intellect, recognizing a systematic shift in how society valued different forms of intelligence.

What they had identified, through their lived experience, was the end stage of a transformation that began with the Industrial Revolution. Throughout most of human history, intelligence existed as a holistic blend of multiple faculties:

Cognitive Intelligence: Detail-oriented pattern recognition, analytical processing of specific information and local patterns — the ability to see and understand the small picture with precision.