If you care to check a dictionary, the core meaning of “smart aleck” depicts a person who thinks he/she is intelligent and who always behaves he/she has an answer to everything. In short, if we are referring to a male, he deems himself to be “Mr. Know All”. A cruder description in modern day lingo is “smart ass”. In a way, a smart aleck is obnoxiously self-assertive and wants to reflect a class above others.
Smart alecks may have scored some successful results, and thus are imbued with a complex of superiority. However, there may come a point when they become most vulnerable, to the extent that when they get hit, they do not even understand what had hit them. The best way to deal with them is to ignore them and let them continue with this kind of mind-set. Sooner or later, they will meet a natural downfall. Why do I say so?
A smart aleck is not cognizant of the realistic environment, surroundings and events around his sphere. Because he thinks he is smart, he becomes blind, and thus most susceptible, to possible fallacies that may result from unrealised misjudgements. Because he thinks he is smart, he has tendencies to plot schemes that he believes are infallible.
The day will come……at some time, somewhere, somehow, and in some unexpected circumstances, he will encounter a serious collision against a hard wall that can greatly traumatise him……..all because of his own doing, and all because he continues to behave as a smart aleck.
A smart Aleck who wields a sword brazenly will taste the sharpness of another person’s sword one day. A smart aleck who plays “human” games will get exhausted by the same games he plays, sooner or later.
There is a Chinese adage which says short people are inclined to be smart and witty in order to compete. Napolean Bonarparte, the conqueror of Europe in the earlier part of the 19th century, was short in stature. He deemed himself to be a smart statesman of France. He won many battles at the height of his pursuits for power. He was able to revamp the French army into a formidable force. Yes, he was indeed smart. But it was due to his “blind” smartness that cost him his greatest mistake and defeat – his attack on Russia in June of year 1812.
Napolean reckoned his well-equipped army would easily sweep off the Russians because the latter were in fact many peasants put together to defend the country. He sent in more than 500,000 soldiers to the Russian territory. He expected a short war, planned to engage a major battle, the kind that he usually won. However, Czar Alexander 1 was wise. He instructed the Russian army to keep on retreating every time Napolean’s side tried to attack. The Russians also deployed the “scorched-earth” policy, i.e. burning the places, including livestock and food, they left behind. The French brought along insufficient food, as Napolean expected a short-lived war and also believing that his army could rely on the left behind supplies after each conquest. In September, his weakening army force entered Moscow. The Russians abandoned the city after burning it into ruins. As winter set in, the French army had to pull back to France. Cold blizzards and hunger took toil on the French army. In the end, the army was decimated to about 30,000 men who survived. Prussia and Austria, the French allies, took the opportunity to switch camps. From then onwards, the morale of the French army plunged low. In 1813, Napolean raised a new army of around 300,000, which was then crushed at the battle of Leipzig.
Napolean was smart, but his smartness did not help him to expect that the Russians withdrew instead of putting up a fight. The devastation of his huge army in the march to Russia sparked the beginning of his downfall as a statesman. Napolean was smart. On the other hand, the simple Czar Alexander 1 was wise. Smart man is never a wise man.
A smart aleck will not think, view and perceive holistically. He is micro in his concepts, not macro. He is impulsive and brash, without patience and perseverance.
Yes, smartness can rebound backwards and kill own self. A smart aleck will seal his own fatal fate in a matter of time.
Whenever I come across a smart aleck, I let him continue to believe he is smart. In fact, I would “fan” his enthusiasm. Ultimately, he will meet his “death” by his own doing……..or in pun, “death by natural cause”.
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