Posted on 12/30/2003 7:28:49 AM PST by nolongerforsale
Many books and articles have been written by psychologists estimating the IQs of people like Isaac Newton and Louis XIV. These estimates may not be very exact, but a surprising amount can be learned by studying the biography of a person and noting their intellectual development.
Isaac Newton, Leibnitz, and Goethe have all been estimated to have had very high IQs, ranging from 160 to 200. Napoleon and Hitler have been estimated around 130-140. King Frederick the Great and Czar Peter the Great around 150. The kings of Europe as a group would be one of the most intelligent groups of people who ever lived, with about a sixth of them being geniuses.
Plato, in his book THE REPUBLIC, described an ideal society ruled by philospher-kings. The American Republic has been run by men of shockingly low ability. Few of them would even be included among the most intelligent 5% of the population. In terms of integrity and character, American politicians would rate little better than the inmates of prisons.
I came across an interesting study which estimated the IQs of American presidents. It comes from ADVANCES IN PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH, VOLUME 14, edited by Serge P. Shohov. New York, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2002. Chapter 6, "Intelligence and Presidential Greatness: Equation Replication Using Updated IQ Estimates" by Dean Keith Simonton. pages 143-153.
The article claims that the best presidents were usually those with the highest IQs. I would question this is in the case of Abraham Lincoln. He started the bloodiest war in American history. Of all the Western countries which had slavery, all of them except the United States and Haiti were able to abolish it peacefully. This might be a better country today if Lincoln had never been elected. Eisenhower isn't rated as very intelligent, but the country prospered under his rule.
Recently, a man sued in Connecticut for being denied a job as a police officer BECAUSE HIS IQ WAS TOO HIGH at 125.
Only in America can a man be denied a job as a policeman for being too intelligent, while stupidity is no bar to being president.
How can these estimates be so detailed as to include tenths of an IQ point? These are averages from a panel of experts based on many criteria.
Washington............................124.7
J. Adams...............................127.8
Jefferson..............................152.9
Madison................................127.8
Monroe.................................107.6
J.Q. Adams.............................133.8
Jackson................................115.7
Van Buren..............................118.7
W. Harrison............................120.7
Tyler..................................123.7
Polk...................................115.7
Taylor.................................109.6
Fillmore...............................114.7
Pierce.................................118.7
Buchanan...............................113.7
Lincoln................................129.8
A. Johnson.............................109.6
Grant..................................107.6
Hayes..................................120.7
Garfield...............................130.8
Arthur.................................130.8
Cleveland..............................116.7
B. Harrison............................114.7
McKinley...............................115.7
T. Roosevelt...........................130.8
Taft...................................121.7
Wilson.................................134.8
Harding................................101.6
Coolidge...............................106.6
Hoover.................................126.7
F. Roosevelt...........................130.8
Truman.................................123.7
Eisenhower.............................114.7
Kennedy................................139.8
L. Johnson.............................119.7
Nixon..................................125.7
Ford...................................115.7
Carter.................................121.7
Reagan.................................125.7
Bush Sr................................117.4
Clinton................................135.0
Bush Jr................................117.1
The problems of the world today are much too complex to be handled by such mediocrities. It has even been suggested that presidential candidates should be given IQ tests. It wouldn't be unreasonable to require candidates to at least be in the upper 1% of the population. That would be almost 3 million people, of whom over a million would be of the proper age, health, and so on.
One President with a high IQ who achieved his potential was Bill Clinton. Clinton had one of the highest IQs and was a Rhodes scholar, and even his enemies agree he was a very good president.
In my opinion, Thomas Jefferson was the best president of all, as well as the most intelligent. But he was a slaveowner who really didn't know much about politics or history. His ideas on how to run a country were mostly wrong.
He was talented at things like architecture and horticulture, though. He was accomplished in many areas.
Al Gore and William Frist would seem to be two politicians of good character and high intelligence. But even they aren't nearly good enough. And they are the best we have.
Today, the world faces overwhelming problems which could destroy civilization and bring on unimaginable catastrophes. The world today is being run by a chaotic system of bad governments and poor systems run by mediocre people with poor characters. To make things even worse, presidents spend almost all their time raising money, attending ceremonial occasions, and wasting time. Very little time is spent learning about the problems of the world and thinking about solutions.
The "smartest man in America" was on television. His IQ is estimated at over 200. He is a part-time bouncer in a bar. His opinions on politics and history were ignorant and ridiculous.
We need a leader with a very high IQ along with other excellent qualities. No one like that is famous anywhere in the world today or holds any public office. This must change.
That's just your family. In my family, the trend is quite different. I'm the only high IQ, and the only one with any sense at all. Also, I'm the only conservative. I think there are many kinds of intelligence, and IQ is only a measure of one rather narrowly defined kind of intelligence.
C'mon, we can be gracious and give him the benefit of the doubt. He may very well have had a big wet greasy one planted on him by some highly coiffed Manhattanite with black jewel-rimmed glasses, a yorkie no bigger than the head of a pin and a philosophy that can only be described as "affluent urban trepidation".
I'm not so sure about that. I think whatever deviousness he displayed is more a function of his personality type than anything else, and we can't leave out the role of the mainstream media in covering his back and cheerleading him on. His speech was always disjointed, jumping from one (unfinished) topic to the next, and he never was able to focus on a task. Off the top of my head, I cannot think of a single thing Clinton accomplished. Many of the people I know are PhD level scientists, and presumably of higher than average intelligence; the one thing they (and I, being one of them) have in common is the ability to focus.
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