I'm a member of MENSA - supposedly the top 3% of the population as far as IQ goes. That assessment is not entirely accurate, but it's a subject for another discussion.
I remember my first meeting. What struck me is that we could just talk without seeming "arrogant" because of our larger vocabulary, wider general knowledge and deeper understanding of issues. Having said that, it is certainly possible to be an actual arrogant bitch and be a member of Mensa. It is also very common to be a total bitch while being dumb as a post. One has nothing to do with the other.
There is another issue that confronts ladies in Second Life: the need for men to prove their superior knowledge of all things. It's called "mansplaining". Overcome with lust at the sight of my (standard Maitreya) body, men fail to notice that I have been in Second Life over 10 years. To be sure, I'm always learning, but I'm not a newbie. A person who approaches me in the spirit if common exploration will impress me. Someone who lectures me on the rules (usually misunderstood) will not impress. I am a chronic rule bender. As with everyone in Second Life, in the end, I make my own rules. These are clearly stated in my profile:
- Do no harm
- Leave them smiling
- No voice
What I don't say in profile is that I ghost, block, ban and un-friend as I please, usually with no explanation. Trust me, you don't *want* an explanation. It's for your own good.
Beyond that, all bets are off. I obey common sense rules like not showing up as a fuzzy in a club and keeping to the dress code. Generally, I want to make Second Life fun for everyone. Same idea in Real Life. Generally speaking, there are reasons behind the "rules", but ultimately we are all responsible to use "common sense". The problem is that everyone thinks they have that in abundance.
If I make a sweeping generalization, stupid people don't know they are stupid. They resist the whole concept of intelligence. They mistake intelligence for arrogance. They mistake opinion for knowledge.
Men on the Second Life beach have had the blood they need to think drain South. It is almost impossible for them to drag themselves away from the subject of sex - the need to "charm" a strange women into immediate sex.
Nudity is the dress code in Naked Sims. Naked Sims are a great place for boat enthusiasts. Guys who mistake nudity for "wanna fuck" are missing something about women - the same mistake they make in Real Life when they think a woman who was raped was "asking for it" when she looks amazing.
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Reaction to this blog prompts me to make a few remarks about "intelligence" in general.
IQ was invented as a testable number that correlates roughly with what people generally regard as intelligence. The first tests were basically intended to rule out people who were too stupid to aim and shoot a gun. "High" IQ has always been a slippery idea. In my view, any IQ over 120 (typical Master's degree) is sliding into irrelevance. To paraphrase Forrest Gump, Intelligence is as intelligence does.
IQ is supposed to be a number that is "innate" - some objective measure of (maybe) brain efficiency. It is very hard for people not familiar with the field to understand research that many aspects of intelligence (or "intelligence" itself) can be learned or at least greatly improved through the right kind of experience. It is amusing to note that bringing this up in a MENSA meeting is like crapping on the carpet. For MENSA members, "high" IQ is a point of pride - sometimes the only point of pride.
A much lower bar than "objectivity" is repeatability. If your "test" results are all over the map for a single situation, you are not measuring anything at all. My own tests vary 40 points. Of course I always quite the high number and discount the low as having a "bad day".
We can say that almost everyone regards themself to be more intelligent than average, a statistical improbability except it's kinda true if you compare yourself to 1920 "average'. It's amazing how many people claim ridiculous IQ scores (say, north of 140) but demonstrate an inability to follow a conversation. It always starts with "I'm not a MENSA member but ..."
IQ is an obsolete idea, like race. We need a better definition of what intelligence is and there are good ideas to consider, such as the one explained in detail in "
Surfaces and Essences" This is a long, heavily researched and reasoned argument so it's hard to summarize. The basic thrust is to examine what it is to "think" and, almost as a second thought, what it means to think
well. My only quibble is that the book is 99% about language, but it makes its point. The idea is easily extended to non-verbal intelligence.
We generally assume we can improve our ability to think "well" so this ability is not entirely innate. Research bears that out. It seems that thinking "well" involves recognizing analogies and using them creatively to solve problems unrelated to the situation that's "like" the one you are facing.
There is also the concept of "wisdom" - arguably what we should actually be looking for in our leaders and cultivating in ourselves. Wisdom has nothing whatever to do with IQ, but that's another subject.
I'd love to discuss all this, especially with those who take the trouble to read "Surfaces and Essences".
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