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To: djf

I’ve had similarly all-over-the-map results which makes me question the validity of the tests and the criteria used in making them. Then there’s the moral question of placing people in niches based on those results - which could deny them (and the rest of us) opportunities and advancements because they accepted the “results” as truth and stopped trying.

One of the worst nights I ever experienced was as a guest at a MENSA meeting. I wanted to get everyone’s “gifted” perspective on ongoing problems while the geniuses found me an annoying obstacle while they were playing “who can impress everyone more” while trying to get other people’s girlfriends and boyfriends. It was a childish playground of one-upsmanship under a veneer of good vocabulary and poor clothing and grooming sense.

It wasn’t bad because anyone trounced me...it was bad because I realized most of that intellect was being spent on their own egotistical advancement of their self-images and where they stood in their “herd” - while not seeing how that dominated their energies and limited their outlooks and creativity. That was a shocking realization for a guy from “the wrong side of the tracks”.


28 posted on 10/01/2007 11:03:33 PM PDT by NewRomeTacitus
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To: NewRomeTacitus

They suffer from what Friedrich Hayek called “The Fatal Conceit.”


30 posted on 10/01/2007 11:29:04 PM PDT by Erasmus (My simplifying explanation had the disconcerting side effect of making the subject incomprehensible.)
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To: NewRomeTacitus
One of the worst nights I ever experienced was as a guest at a MENSA meeting. I wanted to get everyone’s “gifted” perspective on ongoing problems while the geniuses found me an annoying obstacle while they were playing “who can impress everyone more” while trying to get other people’s girlfriends and boyfriends. It was a childish playground of one-upsmanship under a veneer of good vocabulary and poor clothing and grooming sense.

LOL! In my mind's eye I can see this as clear as a bell...not to mention the expression(s) on your face.

33 posted on 10/02/2007 1:13:11 AM PDT by yankeedame ("Oh, I can take it but I'd much rather dish it out.")
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To: NewRomeTacitus
...I realized most of that intellect was being spent on their own egotistical advancement of their self-images and where they stood in their “herd” - while not seeing how that dominated their energies and limited their outlooks and creativity.

Yes! Intellect isn't intelligence, and intelligence isn't insight, insight is only a part of wisdom... I recall that China, for many years cultivated a class of savants to administer it's government--the Mandarins. It seems that this was during its most insular and stagnant period.

Creeping mandaranism.

37 posted on 10/02/2007 8:15:49 AM PDT by tsomer
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