Intelligence is the ability to solve problems. It is the ability to take in information process it, evaluate the meaning and uses and then use this knowledge to some use, not just to retell what you have read, that is called memory.
The problem is that our society judges how clever someone is on their ability to reproduce something they have learned in an assignment or exam. Therefore the most "qualified" people are the ones with good recall skills and not the ones who can actually solve problems. This is why those who "rise to the top" are often as stupid as a blob of hair gel.
Our society is therefore run by idiots, people who can recall what other people tell them without the ability to process all of the possible outcomes before setting out a course of action. This is why the streets are full of potholes, government projects never work and the criminal justice system returns ridiculous decisions.
The key for an intelligent well run society is in education, that much we can agree with almost everyone. The problem is that the education needs to develop intelligence instead of recall, problem solving instead of memory and analytical approaches rather than social group dominated policies (i.e. the rich rule instead of the intelligent). In an age where Google can be accessed to allow us to recall knowledge from all humanity's experience surely now the key is how we use information, those who merely have good recall are now in danger of being replaced by technology.