Don't get me wrong: I fit in the autodidact category and everything I've achieved has been through not brainlessly following the rules, being curious, eager to learn, and slightly subversive. And sometimes I find myself thinking in a way similar to you. Often, I get frustrated when I see people around my blindly doing what is 'normal', living by default, and missing out on the tons of opportunities that are out there. It's their own fault, right?
And yet, over time, I've come to understand that my lack of 'stupidity' and my lack of 'mediocrity' are, to a large degree, not a result of my own awesomeness and my own awesome choices. They're to a large degree a result of my personality, my intelligence, the unusual way that I've grown up and that I've been raised, a bit of luck, and good timing. These are things I didn't work for.
I'm not saying it all just happened and I did nothing for it; I'm proud of the work I did to get here. I'm just saying that it's too easy to call everyone else stupid because they haven't enjoyed the unique concoction of nature and nurture that contributed significantly to what i am.
Plus, if anything, these stupid, mediocre people need sympathy and help from those like us, rather than arrogance and high-horse bullshit, don't they?
Nope. I merely pointed out that thoughtlessness exists everywhere. Never said that means that the majority was thoughtless; I have no evidence to prove that one way or the other, do I?
As far as the rest of your post, unless you have well defined connections like a rich uncle who got you educated or that cool dad with a bunch of connections who got you your first big break, you are either underselling yourself or you are casting a lot to fate than really is true.
Oh, also to clarify a point on "stupidity" and "intelligence". I will be the first one to be clear that a load of the people who make these thoughtless mistakes are smarter than me by other metrics, either they are better educated or they are just faster at math/whatever you may have it. All I have done is work harder and kept a nose in the wind for change, that is not that hard to do. There are people out there who spend more time deciding what icecream they want for dessert than they do about where their life is going. And really, I am supposed to go around clutching their hand and telling them what they don't want to hear? Who is on their high horse now?
Also before it is implied that I am more sympathetic to stupid people in say India or China; I am not. I know enough people there who believe in the group think idea that you can magically turn off your brain, cram and get an education and then get a fucking good job. Those people are stupid. These people are stupid. Stupid people deserve what they get, mediocrity.