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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (171972)	10/5/2005 10:18:52 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Ah the power of presumptions and stereotyping! It seems that many assumed I was saying having high IQ precludes being a loving decent person. In fact I was making a point of relative values that if the choice was between loving decent people of average IQ (typically defined as 80-110) and arrogant self absorbed upper 2% of the population, I'd choose the former. Of course if I can have it all, I'd go for it. This is like I saying, "between money and good health I'd choose health" and you countering back "but what about having both or being poor and sick". Now on a practical matter and based on personal experience, loving decent people with high IQ seem to find more engaging activities and more rewarding social life than to join MENSA. On the other hand, those who are rated as the being in the upper 2% of IQ tests (a very narrow measure of intelligence) but have little else to offer and develop a superiority complex, seem to gravitate towards MENSA gatherings. This is a correlation and not a causality.

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (171972)	10/5/2005 11:12:05 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

>> My guess is that intelligent people are more likely to be able to figure out that you are much better off being decent and loving rather than arrogant and self indulgent. You get one room full of intelligent people and another room full of dummies - guess which room most of decent and loving people will be in? Boy are you going to be in for a surprise if you actually run that experiment! It is a well documented fact that retarded people do not commit crimes and in general are very loving decent folk. Children below a certain age are incapable of lying and some psychologists use childhood skills at deception as a measure of intelligence. It is also well established that when you look at the most destructive crimes or crimes against humanity, they are done by remarkably intelligent people...you don't think for example that Saddam would have been able to make it to presidency from being a street thug and even more importantly being able to hold his grip on power for so long if he was a dummy, do you? In general, and as you look at say "normal" population, the more intelligent people do not populate the prisons because either they can find legal ways of getting what they want or because they are better at not getting caught. None of these however makes them a more "loving" or "decent" person. Being respectful of others' rights, having empathy for plight of others, being content, or being modest has little to do with how high your IQ is, though there does seem to be some negative correlation between high IQ and some of these qualities...now if you excuse me I am late for my MENSA meeting <g>