My teachers told me that, in the intellectually elite atmosphere of GSP, I would be among my gray-matter peers and savor all the benefits thereof. After being with "my own kind," they said, I would learn more about myself and the aforesaid "own kind." I would come to love the erudite atmosphere presented me and despise returning to the addled pseudoculture of high school.
Yes, I did learn--or, more accurately, I proved a belief that I have held for a long time: Smart people can be just as stupid as everyone else. What strikes me about the "educated" culture of such brain-fests as GSP is that it is identical to normal high school--after the first mix-em-ups, the population quickly stratifies into cliques of assholes, bigots, preps, populars, jerks, snobs, jocks, nerds, geeks, neoLuddites, Naderians, et al. My "less intellectually endowed" friends could take the lot of these overhyped "geniuses" and, in a contest of plain decency and humanity, knock them into a cocked hat.
My roommate, some poor sot from the far western periphery of Kentucky, was an interesting sort--gregarious yet unnervingly condenscending. His special way of determining personality was to constantly insult--sorry, tease--them and register their reaction. It was funny at first, but quickly degenerated into another burden to bear, and after five days of bearing the constant burden of being called stupid, gay, stuck up, a wanker, a pervert, a beastialist, a liar, and so on my resolve began to crack. When I decided to stop playing by the rules of his stupid little game, I was suddenly some sort of snob who needed to "lighten up." What the hell? He was calling me the jackass. What the bloody hell? I was being perfectly civil--all I wanted was for the abuse to stop. I asked politely, and suddenly I was some sort of asshole for not wanting to play by his rules. I couldn't care less if the poor little snot-nosed punk-ass brat was sad that he couldn't insult--sorry, tease--me anymore; I just wanted to be treated decently. Throughout the five weeks, the best we could get to was to simply ignore each other.
The only thing that distinguished my from anyone else on Centre's campus was my aged, beat up fedora. When I took it off, I became not just a nonperson but an unperson. I couldn't be more invisible if I had a cloaking device and several stage mirrors. Nine out of ten people who ever said anything to me began with "Nice hat!" Eight out of ten left it at that. Without the hat, I was just another dispossessed nerd.
There was good to be seen, however. Most people, despite the social stratification, were at least generally open-minded, and the closed-minded ones were fun to argue with. The teachers and resident advisors were all nice; such as Chukwuameka "Patrick" Nnoromele, my philosophy teacher; his wife, Salome Nnoromele, my storytelling teacher; the RAs Pratt, Scott, and Smallwood. Most of my peers simply existed. A small percentage (slightly larger than in a normal high school) could go play in a food processor or a walk-in trash compactor for all I cared. In the long run, many of the attendees at GSP were just as vapid, just as trite, just as mean, and just as terminally stupid as everyone else. There also were a definite percentage that were bright, witty, and mature. That did not and does not hide the fact that GSP's "self-finding" capabilities were highly overrated.
What we intellectual supremicists tend to ignore are the instances of doublethink and hypocrisy that we ourselves exhibit. We despise the small-mindedness of others, but in that despising become small-minded ourselves. We align ourselves with a particular philosophy, religion, mode of thought, that we consider to be right to the detriment of all others. Ecoterrorists despise the world industrialists, denying all advantage that industry has brought us. World industrialists despise ecoterrorists, denying the poigniant and relevant qualms and caveats the earth-friendly bring up. Democrats, Republicans, Green Partyists, Socialists, Communists, Libertarians... all believe in their own social dogma to the detriment of all others. Fundamentalists cannot accept religious moderates and progressives just as those moderates and progressives cannot tolerate fundamentalism. Anyone who can extract themselves from the mire find themselves hamstringed by the lack of any moral, social, religious, or political bearing. Sitting on the fence may provide a wide view but also extremely limits the places one can go.
Thus came many of the problems of GSP, but there is hope. Many of our problems could be solved with rational, cogent discussion, and there is hope for us all.