At the beginning of the 20th Century, we were in the middle of the industrial revolution where scientific and engineering minds were prominent. These types of brain are far more clinical than the average brain. Clinical accuracy and precision are of paramount importance in this situation, how one feels is less so.
If we consider the work of Professor Baron Cohen at the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge, the bulk of the population have broader emotional intelligence then clinical intelligence with most women having broader emotional intelligence and narrower clinical intelligence than men – see graph. This is essential for the survival of the human race because the human child is born helpless and requires parenting at least up until the mid to late teens. Innate emotional intelligence enables parents to attend to the needs of their offspring without which the child would be far less likely to survive let alone thrive.
It also makes sense that most women have slightly broader emotional intelligence than most men because women give birth and breast feed the offspring and therefore it is more important for them to bond with the child than the father, although it is ideal for both parents to bond with the child. If the mother is dealing with childbirth and breastfeeding, it also makes sense for the father has broader clinical intelligence so that he can provide for the needs of his family outside of childbirth and breast-feeding.
Please note these are averages and there are men broader emotional intelligence than most women and women with broader clinical intelligence than most men. These are natural variations within a population. These things are trends and not black and white as we are all on a spectrum.
There is a trend within a population that the broader the emotional intelligence the narrower the clinical intelligence and vice versa. This has its advantages because the intelligence is then focused in a narrower field making specialists who can solve complex problems in that field that the average brain may struggle with. Those who are extremely clinically intelligent make great scientists and engineers. Those who are extremely emotionally intelligent make specialist carers and understand the complex needs of those who struggle within the world.
If we consider that most people have a brain of similar size and that the brain is made up of the same material for everyone, it is therefore reasonable to suggest that everyone will have a comparable size of intelligence even though the type of intelligence will be different for everyone. Someone who is highly clinically intelligent and lower on emotional intelligence may have scientific, engineering or mathematical intelligence but be unsure on how to deal with social situations or the care of others..
Someone who is high on emotional intelligence and lower on clinical intelligence will be able to glide through social situations with ease knowing instinctively know how and when to provide the appropriate emotional support to someone, but being lower on clinical intelligence may struggle with relatively simple tasks in maths or the operation of a computer or solving mechanical problems.
What this demonstrates is that the human brain can be intelligent and stupid at the same time, that is to say that intelligence and stupidity exist side by side in the human mind and this applies to everyone. The trap that those who are not self aware fall into is that because they have intelligence they think that they are intelligent. They see stupidity in others but not themselves. This is often played out in the battle of the sexes where women might see men as stupid and men might see women as stupid when in reality they are both as stupid and intelligent as each other.
Back to the trains …
At the beginning of the twentieth century, men had dominance over women and the men that were even more clinical in their thinking became even more prominent. Efficiency, precision and detail were everything. Competition drove efficiency. For people to use the train it had to do what it said it would do and this made the men money. The welfare of those who worked on the trains, the train lines or the industries making both was of less importance. Emotional intelligence was of little or no value unless in the home.
As the twentieth century progressed women gained a voice in society especially through the suffragette movement and replacing men in the workplace during two world wars. The unions gained in strength for better working conditions to the point in the 1970s when they were stronger than the employers in some cases. As emotional intelligence gained relevance, welfare and human rights improved, the more clinically thinking brain became less prominent and although still there had to fight harder to exist and had to accommodate the more more emotionally intelligent brain.
The clinically intelligent brain as I mentioned earlier is more precise and accurate in how it operates and the language it uses compared to the more emotionally intelligent brain. To a brain that is more emotionally intelligent and less clinically intelligent a spade and a shovel are pretty much the same thing. They look similar and are used in a similar way, so substituting the name of one for the other is not a problem. To the more clinically intelligent brain the spade and the shovel are very different. They are designed and constructed differently and have very different uses. To substitute one name for the other is quite frankly ridiculous.
As the more emotional intelligent brain gained more prominence in society, fixed descriptions changed. 12noon and 12midnight became 12pm and 12am. To the more emotionally intelligent brain 12noon and 12midnight were too long and outside the normal time descriptions denoting morning and afternoon when using the 12 hour clock. If 12:01pm was 1 minute past 12noon then it made sense to make 12noon 12pm and 12midnight 12am.
To the more clinically intelligent brain 12pm and 12am don’t really exist and if they did they would both be 12midnight which would be highly confusing. As am stands for ante meridiem or before midday and pm stands for post meridiem or after midday, and 12 noon is midday, 12 noon cannot be 12am or 12pm. It is impossible.
In this case the more clinically intelligent would consider the more emotionally intelligent to be inaccurate with poor use of language, whilst the more emotionally intelligent would consider the more clinically intelligent as being fastidious and over precise.
One of the biggest advances in the 20th century was the computer. Computer science is the essence of everything systematic or clinical. In its basic form it is a series of switches turning on and off. It is binary. It is black and white. The more emotionally intelligent don’t deal in black and white, they deal in greys or off-whites. They are less comfortable with definitive positions. For the computer to have value to a population that is less clinically intelligent than those who designed it, it has to be user friendly so they can interact with it. This made the most important button on a computer both definitive and vague at the same time thus satisfying both camps. Rather than labelling this button “YES” or “NO” it was given a label that was slightly more definitive than “MAYBE”. That button is the “OK” button. This button was acceptable to all.
There is now a greater integration of the more clinically intelligent and more emotionally intelligent minds but it is not an easy relationship. Women are still discriminated against by men. The Autistic are considered to have a disability or disorder. The banker is paid much more than the carer when both have equal value to society. It is all a bit of a mess as society tries to come to terms with what people need and recognise each individual’s strengths and weaknesses, so becoming more self aware
Vagueness has taken over where accuracy would be better. In other areas compassion is not valued. People are confused.
Currently there is no competition on the railways apart from tending for a contract. There is no incentive to increase efficiency only a disincentive for being inefficient by being penalised by the Government. The only incentive is to make money for the shareholders. The needs and welfare of the passengers are secondary because it is a monopoly.
With the current climate emergency and the need to clean up urban air quality, it makes sense to improve the efficiency of the trains and buses. Have them run on time and provide adequate seating at affordable prices, that way making it attractive for people to use the trains. This would improve the welfare of those operating and using the trains and also those who live in urban areas. This approach would use both clinical and emotional intelligence, maximising everyone’s benefit.