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

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (172060)	10/6/2005 11:12:21 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Respond to of 281500

Well, here are your problems: (1) Smart is not the same as high-IQ. All things being equal, it is better to have a higher IQ than not. That point is not even worthy of debate. The debate is about how valuable high IQ is when everything is NOT equal. (2) Your good/evil comment fails to account the complexities of life. Yes, again just as in your first point, "pure evil" will self destruct. But that is not worthy of debate. The debate is that if I am very good to select few and very bad with to many, am I self destructive? Many oppressive regimes that lasted for generations say not so...at least not during the founder's lifetime or even that of his grandchildren. Alternatively, if I am "good" in some things and "evil" in other things, how does that relate to my IQ? (3) You really need to stop looking at life in such Manichean ways. Life is far more complex than high-IQ = smart = better life and low-IQ = stupid = worse life. Vincent Vangoh would not have scored high on IQ tests, but there is no questioning his creativity. Stephen Hawkings would score very high, but if he'd been born in a different family (or part of the world/century) he'd have painfully perished long ago. His high IQ (as well as his brilliant mind) would not have saved him. Here is some food for thought: take a look at the top 500 CEOs. Are they also the top 500 people with highest IQs? Does the average R&D coordinator have higher IQ than his researchers? Does George Bush have the highest IQ in America or is he even significantly above average? (Bush's academic records certainly don't show a briliant mind) There is a lot more to life than high IQ and by the way, within norm (which is what I am discussing) low IQ does not mean "stupid". A person with IQ of 90 will not be easily distinguishable from a person with IQ of 110.

To: Mary Cluney who wrote (172060)	10/6/2005 11:34:37 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

BTW, when I was in grade school we got to write an essay about whether it is better to have knowledge or money. The expectation was for the students to articulate why academic success is important e.g. "wealth can be lost but knowledge is always with you". My essay was in defense of money <vbg> I argued that given fair amount of knowledge a ton of money I can always outperform someone with a ton of knowledge/talent and fair amount of money. Among other things I argued that I could hire the smart fellow to make smart decisions for me...the teacher was both amused and upset; this was not the answer he wanted the class to hear.