There are individuals, particularly in academics, who think they are super genius. They suffer from lifelong acute superiority complex. Some of them are even aware of this affliction but are helpless. You look at them hard you can notice the crown on their head. Look harder, you can see the shape of the throne behind them. Even while they are walking.
Nothing wrong per se. After all everyone has a right for self delusion. Only, on their way to self-imposed King-Arthur-ship these individuals also pick and master the art of putting others down consistently or taking them for granted.
And through the years this trait grows exponentially, as the burden of self-imposed genius grows. There comes a situation in life when these individuals can no longer interact with anyone without putting them down with a patronizing wave of their hand or ask a simple hello-how-are-you-doing without making it sound as if it is the greatest act of altruist service extended by them to the undeserving stupid world.
Such individuals usually don’t know how to treat you with human respect because, for them, you are sub-human. Even when they want something from you, they can only place that request to you as an order in a patronizing tone. For instance, when placing a request they don’t start sentences with a “May I” or a “Can I”, but it usually starts with an authoritative “Why don’t you”. They then proceed to demand their request. It could be a request for borrowing books, research papers, notes, software, hardware, your consent for doing a donkey job, your signature on the dotted line, your consent for them to take your below average course so that they don’t need to put any effort in acing it, you get the idea. They then proceed to promptly take these things off your shelf or self in righteous ownership and scoot off with a derisive thanks.
Of course, the thanks is for managing a modicum of pseudo-courage and not cringing into a non-entity and pissing your pants off in their brilliant presence. After all, fools like you anyway don’t deserve to wield some pride or own such things in the first place, which rightfully belongs in the world only with such super genius.
You accede to all of this because, after all, even after all of your elevated degrees and so called research, you simply are a loser who is relegated to work in this god forsaken place that is only made fertile briefly by the sojourn of such aforementioned genius. It is only a matter of years you wait and see while these geniuses win the Nobel, while you are still trying to fart your loser’s pants off.
There is another variation of this super genius. This type of individual has shown success in an academic scale, in that, there are actually enough research publications bearing her name, awards and citations of reasonable promise decorate her resume and office and colleagues do regard her for her reasonable success in lesser years of good effort. Until this point things are fine. Only, the promising individual is also a snob. Based on her success (which should always be credited) she would assume she is the most intelligent genius to have traversed this part of Earth and the rest of the colleagues and community are relative non-entities. If one were to praise another such colleague or peer in front of her, she can’t stand it. Immediately whatever is the earthly or silly side of the praised individual (and we all have silly sides, don’t we?) will be explored and dissected until everyone agrees with her point of view that she is the best and the rest are still trying.
Worst still, many times she will even stoop to preempt the possible raise of anyone else in her immediate vicinity by selective bad mouthing about every other promising talents with administrative and academic superiors. She deliberately reserves some time every day for doing this: collecting information by asking discreetly or indiscreetly, superiors, colleagues and subordinates about every other person who is a possible threat for her title and fiefdom; consolidating the information into juicy anecdotes and exaggerated but well established opinions; spread them back to others by deliberately talking about it without being asked for in crucial meetings, committees and seminars; make sure everyone concerned hears it by talking again at the tea shop. And of course, all along the way, peppering the talk with more of her accomplishments and good deeds.
If you confront her with her behavior, she would theorize it with a seemingly innocent reply that goes “There is something called “official grapevine” in every hierarchy and I am merely acceding to its demands and feeding it”. Of course, many times this official grape-whining works to her advantage. After all, the rest of us must realize that if we can stand her success, why not also her bullying. Anyway we all are losers who can always be taken for granted.
Such specimens do get in your nerves and distract your working and contribute at times to your inefficiency. But in the long run, one should know how to deal with these insecure minds. One good way is to simply keep ridiculing them and putting them in their pedestal with enough sarcasm, whenever one gets a chance.
Thankfully, the audience of Science is spread far and wide in the World and mostly silent. And hundred years from now, it is all new people on this Earth. All the intermediate vainglorious castles are dissolved inexorably into thin air by the relentless passage of time. Only one’s work remains, if at all.
Meanwhile, let these super geniuses continue to be, like Dirty Harry, legends in their own minds.
