[count-your-change]

Crabtree is trying to be proof of his own premise. I would point to the Romans rather than the Athenians as examples of intellect, the Greeks talked, the Romans did.

Or maybe some of the peoples of South America, people who mastered their environment to the extent they were able to build cities on mountain tops with a mastery of stone superior to anyone in the world.

But like flowers that bloom for a time they all withered and disappeared without ever understanding why. Maybe they weren't so smart after all.

[Mogger]

Buy the movie, "Idiocracy". It explains exactly what's going on with the human race right now.

Watch who breeds and who doesn't.

Watch the genealogy chart of the "smart" shrink, while the chart of the "dumb" expands.

Buy it so you can watch it a few times to pick up the nuances..

It is a somewhat vulgar, but very timely movie.

[muawiyah]

note, Greek engineering, pound for pound, was as good as that of the Romans ~ for one thing they shared the same intellectual sphere ~ unfortunately the Roman attitude was to do it and use it while the Greeks actually kept many advances SECRET.

The Chinese intellectual classes appear to have done much the same thing unless their lives depended on it ~ which suggests we can all become quite a bit smarter if tortured every now and then!