But remember one thing: the most intelligent people have come from the middle class. The poor man is so hungry and starving, he has no energy for thinking and inquiring about truth. He is searching for bread and butter. His basic physiological needs are not fulfilled, so no genius has ever come from the poor, it is impossible.
From the rich it is also impossible, for a totally different reason. The rich man has everything that he needs, he misses all the challenges of life. He is too protected, and if you protect a child too much you will cripple him. What does he need intelligence for?
When I was a student in the university, I met a student who had been in the same master’s degree class for ten years continuously! I could not believe it. I asked him and he said, “Who cares about passing? I enjoy being among the students. I have money, I have time, I have a car, I can get the most beautiful girl any time. I don’t come here to learn geography and history and psychology. I am not concerned, I am not interested. What can they give me? If I pass and I have a degree, that cannot make me richer. I am already too rich.”
Geniuses have never come from the super-rich people, they are born in the middle class. The middle class has been the source of all great scientists, mystics, philosophers; so don’t take middle class in a derogatory way. And the reason the middle class brings intelligence to its climax? The reason is simple: the middle class is continuously struggling to reach higher. There is a possibility for the middle class to enter into the richer class. It is just there, a little more effort and he will cross the boundary of being a middle class person. There are only a few rungs on the ladder, it is not impossible for a middle class man to conceive himself becoming super-rich. This is one side; he goes on sharpening his intelligence.
On the other side, he is always afraid of falling down among the poor. So he is fighting a double fight. First, not to fall into the poor class, not to become a proletarian; and he is fighting, competing, because he can see the goal is not far away, just a few steps more and he has arrived. This gives him a double chance of sharpening his intelligence, that’s why all the geniuses have come from the middle class.
So don’t be worried about the middle class in your city, they are fortunate to be in the middle class. To be poor is ugly; to be super-rich makes your life closer to vegetation. The rich man is almost a cabbage, perhaps a cauliflower. The difference is not much: the cauliflower is only a cabbage with a college degree.
I am absolutely certain they will understand what I have to say, but I will not adjust, because I don’t compromise on anything. I speak the way I feel to speak; whether anyone understands or not, it is their business. I will not come down and compromise and say things which are appealing to them, which they can understand. What can they understand? Only that which they already know, for which they have been conditioned. They can understand absurd, idiotic things.