Education and intelligence are often touted as solutions to various problems but I don't think it has done much to raise awareness on collapse or how unsustainable our economic system is. Maybe it is my imagination as I was not alive in the 70s and was much too young to remember anything from the 80s but it would seem people today are much less aware of how unsustainable our lifestyles are.

I mean, back in the 70s people openly thought our society is run on fossil fuels but now this isn't the case. Heck just the other day I hear some guy on QUORA (which is supposed to house intelligent people) saying the "peak oil myth" has been debunked and business as usual will prevail and we need not worry about those worrywarts. Not his words exactly but the thrust of his argument. The guy speaking was a lawyer and has practised law in multiple countries so you can't use the "uneducated/lack of intelligence" as an excuse.

To me I see intelligence as something like this; an intelligent person can offer you a good answer but a wise person can ask the right questions. People aren't asking enough of the right questions and collectively we are lacking in wisdom and humility to see the true picture.

Without wisdom, naked intelligence is as dangerous as giving a baby a gun. The baby will not fully understand the weapon they are wielding and over time will unleash untold damage and carnage. All this intelligence and education is just sending us into a rabbit hole into oblivion. You also got to remember intelligent people are more adept at rationalising any lack of logic or inconsistencies in their world view.

In the end, I don't really subscribe to the notion that if we were more intelligent or more educated the situation would be appreciably different. We are social animals at heart and even the most intelligent amongst us will just follow the herd so to speak. People with contrarian opinions will become outcasts or social misfits and won't fit in enough to make a difference.