I have NO desire to be part of Mensa, incidentally: the people I saw applying when I was at Uni put me off because of their arrogant attitudes. I suppose they, as is the case with most people, wanted to feel good about themselves. In their case, what they excelled at was stuff measured by IQ, so ... they used that to feel good, and then they made the mistake of trying to feel even better by belittling others who had skills in other areas.
You never acheive anything of merit or genuine value when it is founded on tearing down or attacking something that is different: treasure and appreciate the good things you have, but do so because they are good, not because they are a means to lord it over others.
I consider Emotional Quotient to have greater relevance to most people's lives, for instance. One of the advantages of EQ, or Emotional Intelligence as it is sometimes called, is that it forces those who may over-intellectualise, to the exclusion of all else (and I am writing on the basis of, in part, 30 years of engineering, working, at times, under some truly appalling, dreadful managers who should never have been allowed to manage a pencil case, let alone a human being) to become aware that human interactions are important.
However, getting back to what I wanted to cover, on SBS television last night was a programme examining the alleged link between racism and intelligence. After some really aggravating views claiming that a link was found, the best objective evidence was that things like educative support and opportunities (the sort of things missing in situations of gross poverty) were what made the difference in terms of IQ. The best comment, to me, was along the lines that what IQ measures is really extent of adaptation to modernity.
I can SO relate to that. There are people I've known who have low IQ, but their skills in non-academic areas such as living rough or going bush are phenomenal. For instance, there was an Torres Strait Islander at the high school I went to in Mackay who was, to me, very clearly intelligent, but his focus was not on academic acheivement: his interest was elsewhere in life [2].
I tried to find a link to the documentary, but the SBS website defeated me ... :(
I have been thinking about this issue of adapation to environments: I think focusing too much on an intellectual situation can lead to some downright stupid behaviour elsewhere. I'm particularly thinking of some pedestrians I've seen in the last few days doing some incredibly stupid things - one man, in the city, ran across cars that had just started moving because their traffic lights had turned green. If the cars hadn't braked, he would have been hit.
This situation probably involves a whole host of other things, such as focus on the music he was listening to, focus on trying to get fit (he was clearly running some distance at some speed, and probably didn't want to stop the flow of that), not to mention to tendency I've noticed in many people to put the great God *bow, scrape, worship* PERSONAL CONVENIENCE *bow, scrape, worship* ahead of everything else, such as waiting for traffic lights. At he time, I remember thinking this person coukld quite possibly be someone who is quite intelligent in their workplace, and yet they are so incredibly dumb out on the street.
And talking of streets and traffic leads me to my final point, a nice little story from Sweden about a speed camera where (a) speeding motorists were fined, and (b) the fine money went into a lottery and those obeying the speed limit had a chance to win some of it. I like that - think i might suggest it to our new State government ...
Love, light, hugs and blessings
Gnwmythr
Notes:
- When my family moved from Victoria to Queensland in the early 70s, one of the things the new school system made me do was an IQ test - Goddess knows why. Anyway, after completing the test, I wasn't sure whether I was allowed to move or not until I saw someone else deleiver their completed test paper, so I did (and then found out that time to complete this was assessed! I had asked, but the supervisor must have misunderstood my question, as he said "take as long as you want"). Anyway, after that, I wasn't told my actual IQ (apparently the policy of the Department), but I was given a [percentage bracket, and it was quite high ... So that statment actually does have some objective foundation; it is not a case of being arrogant.
- I remember this kid because I actually offered to help him with his homework if he ever got stuck. The offer didn't lead to anything in the end.
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Tags: IQ, indigenous, school, about me, attitudes, arrogance, irresponsibility, safety,
First published: Tysdagr 30th November, 2010
Last edited: Tysdagr 30th November, 2010
