You are right that being more rational doesn’t automatically imply the ability to exploit others. But this may miss the point. Loup-vaillant says not that he is more rational than the others, but that he feels superior because of that. Although rationality and intelligence aren’t directly linked to status, the superiority feeling is part of the status game, and feeling superior when one’s status is about average can be viewed as a sort of false belief.
There’s more than one status game though. For example, a high status scientist might nonetheless have a low social status generally, especially if his or her high status is in an esoteric field. Wouldn’t it make sense for a rational person to reject the status judgments of the irrational and instead look for status among his peers? We might expect loup-vaillant to have some accomplishments that would set him apart from the irrational masses in the eyes of his peers—that he’s not all talk—but I doubt this would set the bar very high. He’d then be free to feel superior to most people.
It’s possible to feel superior to most people because you can recite Koran by heart even if you are a homeless beggar. It’s possible to feel superior because you can solve a Rubik’s cube faster than anybody else. There will always be some peers who would award you high status for unusual accomplishments. If that’s what you want, there are hardly any objections to be made. But from my experience, the superiority feeling quickly fades away when I realise that it is based on status game which the “inferiors” don’t wish to participate in.
You are right that being more rational doesn’t automatically imply the ability to exploit others. But this may miss the point. Loup-vaillant says not that he is more rational than the others, but that he feels superior because of that. Although rationality and intelligence aren’t directly linked to status, the superiority feeling is part of the status game, and feeling superior when one’s status is about average can be viewed as a sort of false belief.
There’s more than one status game though. For example, a high status scientist might nonetheless have a low social status generally, especially if his or her high status is in an esoteric field. Wouldn’t it make sense for a rational person to reject the status judgments of the irrational and instead look for status among his peers? We might expect loup-vaillant to have some accomplishments that would set him apart from the irrational masses in the eyes of his peers—that he’s not all talk—but I doubt this would set the bar very high. He’d then be free to feel superior to most people.
It’s possible to feel superior to most people because you can recite Koran by heart even if you are a homeless beggar. It’s possible to feel superior because you can solve a Rubik’s cube faster than anybody else. There will always be some peers who would award you high status for unusual accomplishments. If that’s what you want, there are hardly any objections to be made. But from my experience, the superiority feeling quickly fades away when I realise that it is based on status game which the “inferiors” don’t wish to participate in.