From: Thomas Buckner (tcbevolver@yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Feb 07 2005 - 18:51:00 MST
--- David Clark <clarkd@rccconsulting.com> wrote:
> > Would our current problems with democracy be
> better
> > solved by narrowing the IQ gap, or by
> boosting all
> > IQ equally?
>
> Do you think that most people either have the
> mental capacity or the will to
> increase their IQ? I don't think so. The only
> other alternative is to make
> smarter people less so. Are you volunteering
> for this position? Society
> will not stop the increase in intelligence that
> is occuring in some people
> whether you or I can agree or not. I am very
> doubtful about the average
> intelligence being raised for most people no
> matter what anyone does.
>
> I guess my answer is that I see no way other
> than the gap between the higher
> IQ's and the lower IQ's widening. We see that
> now to some extent and the
> gap and associated problems will only continue
> to grow.
>
> -- David Clark
Ach, David, you drive me batty. I think you have
an elitist streak a yard wide. Nevertheless, I
too suspect the IQ's are widening, or to be more
specific, many people use their native
intelligence for utter trivia because they have
had the luxury of surviving on half a brain in a
rich country for half a century.
I feel that the central thrust of a
demarchy/Random Mandarin system, from *my
viewpoint*, is not so much putting the paper boy
in the Oval Office, but simply throwing real
obstacles in front of thugs. Need I point out
that one of the most powerful men in the United
States government (Tom DeLay) is a former
exterminator who hated the government telling him
what he could and could not do with bug poison? A
real piece o' work, that fellow, and we're not
talking about a philosopher-king here.
Would you approve of a demarchic system more if
it were limited to a core of Mensa members,
CEO's, former Olympians, and other self-selected
overachievers? (This would be pretty close to
ancient Athens, and nobody can fault that system,
while it lasted).
Heck, when you come right down to it, 90% of what
I want out of a random system could be achieved
by forcing all office holders to undergo PET
scans to weed out the neurologically abnormal
sociopaths. I feel in my bones that the ranks of
solons would be decimated! Those who remained
would still have all their usual flaws, but at
least they wouldn't be soulless lizards
pretending to give a fig about the future.
Have you ever known a real sociopath? I have, at
least once. K.W. was as smart as me, more or
less, and lived in the same house in Cambridge.
>From what I heard, he would sleep through classes
at Harvard and get perfect grades, although I
learned not to believe anything about him unless
I could verify it. He was said to be one of those
people who can play several games of chess at
once and win them all. He was a 'social activist'
but mainly seemed to work at surrounding himself
with admirers and playing chess with humans as
pieces. I recall a woman in the house starting
fights with me for no obvious reason. One day, as
I walked out of the kitchen with a freshly made
cup of tea, I saw her by a window weeping (Why?
Don't know; didn't ask). Not knowing what else to
do, I offered her the tea. She looked shocked,
and accepted it; she then told me this simple
gesture was totally incompatible with the tales
K.W. had been telling her about me. I think he
did that with everyone.
On a trip out west, K.W. would not let anyone
else drive. He apparently needed to prove he was
a superman. He fell asleep and his lover died in
the wreck. I recall being warned when the
survivors returned that K.W. was not to be
personally attacked for this, being in a fragile
mental state due to his trauma and guilt! He had
suffered too much already.
I suggest you worry too much about IQ and not
enough about motive. Knowing there are K.W.'s
making decisions about my life is, for me, like
knowing there's a pyromaniac in the apartment
downstairs.
Tom Buckner
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