E.Q.
Not to be confused with I.Q., or one’s ‘intelligence quotient’, E.Q. or ‘emotional quotient’ – or ‘emotional intelligence’, which I suppose should properly be E.I. but just doesn’t sound as vogue that way – is now portrayed as the actual pivotal index for one’s success, whatever that means. In eons past, in one wanted to succeed, which could be roughly translated to ‘if one wanted to make a lot of money’, it was nearly universally necessary for one to study hard throughout school, get good grades, become a doctor, lawyer or engineer and then proceed to engage in their chosen career field with rigor and gradual build their revenue and portfolio. Of course, this conventionally required the traditional definition of intelligence throughout. Now, the new paradigm is more about social engineering and predicting behavior of people on a mass scale to procure success – which still means procuring money to most. Of course, mass behavior now includes social media addiction and online video viewing. So, following the herd (or perhaps leading the herd, and following the money), one need not spend tireless and countless hours studying to “succeed”. One needs merely to make videos of himself or herself pranking people, or doing ridiculous stunts, or doing make-up tutorials (and yes, this unfortunately still goes for both ‘himself’ and ‘herself’) and become ‘viral’ to go from their small-town barista job to ‘international Vlogger’ overnight. sponsored by your favorite airline and your favorite hiking shoe and backpack. If E.Q. is the new I.Q. is being emotionally savvy the new genius? Is knowing people the new ‘knowing things’? Is reading people the new reading books? This is unfortunate, at least in some ways. Though, in a sense, I suppose it is often more about who you know than what you know. Having a high emotional intelligence isn’t bad, just like having a high regular intelligence isn’t bad, but if it’s used to manipulate and connive your way to the top then you have transgressed into the realm of abuse and exploitation.
