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Friday, March 23, 2012
IQCRACY: A Recipe for the Survival of Our Species
Category: Conversations, Life, Mind Change, People PowerThe survival of the species depends on the establishment of an IQcracy, a Platonian Republic of the Intellect. At the top, serving as leaders and decision-makers, would be people with 150 IQ and higher. A soaring Intelligence Quotient (IQ), by itself, is insufficient, of course. Members of this elite of “philosopher-kings” would also have to be possessed with a high emotional quotient (EQ) and sound mental health.
The next rung in thd social ladder would be comprised of those with an IQ of between 100 and 150. They will form and constitute the managerial, bureaucratic, scientific, and entrepreneurial classes. People with IQs between 80 and 100 will replenish the blue-collar skilled and trained working classes. Unfortunates with less than 80 IQ will be confined to simple, repetitive menial jobs. They will be barred from voting.
Why such drastic measures? Because Humanity is under imminent threat of being overreun by idiots, diluted by imbeciles, and submerged by a tidal wave of retardation. we often confuse technology with culture and civilization with progress. Nazi Germany is proof that such reflexive linkages are spurious. In truth, we have become barbarians with iPads: we use the latest innovations to play Angry Birds and watch inane videos on YouTube and exchange trivialities on Facebook.
A study of nine million young adults over 40 years (conducted by Jean Twenge and her colleagues and published in the March 2012 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) has starkly demonstrated the deterioration from one generation to another. Youngsters are now focused on money, image, and fame and disparage values such as community, volunteerism, the environment, and knowledge acquisition. Other surveys have documented a rising level of illiteracy. As if to illustrate the imminence of these new Dark Ages, the Encyclopedia Britannica announced that it will cease the publication of its print edition after 244 years. Its surviving digital editions are a far cry from the print equivalent in terms of depth, length, and erudition.
The Stupid, the Trivial, and the Frivolous are everywhere: among the working classes, of course, but increasingly you can find them displacing the erstwhile elites, spawning hordes of mindless politicians, idiot business tycoons, narcissistic media personalities, vacuous celebrities, illiterate bestselling authors, athletes with far more brawn than brain, repetitious pop singers, and even ignorant academics. Their cacophony drowns the few voices of wisdom, expertise, and experience and their sheer number overwhelms all systems of governance and all mechanisms of decision-making. The Imbeciles are a menace to the continued existence not only of our civilization, but also of our species. We may end up being all Homo, no sapiens.
The percentage of stupid people in the general populace may not have changed. It may even have decreased. But in terms of absolute numbers, there are more Stupid heads now than the entire human population only a century ago. Modern medicine makes sure that the retarded and plain dim-witted live on to a ripe old age. That we are faced with the daunting prospect of idiocracy is the fault of the malignant transformation of the democratic ideal and the recent onslaught of the media, both old and new.
Start with democracy:
In the not-too-distant past stupid people had the right to vote once in a while and thus express their completely inconsequential opinion where it mattered least: in the ballot box. Alas, the inane idea of “one person (never mind how pinheaded, unqualified, or ignorant), one vote” has invaded and permeated hitherto hierarchical environments such as government, the workplace, and the military. With technology at their disposal, The Stupid repeatedly interfere with and disrupt the proper functioning of virtually every system.
Even the generation and transfer of knowledge have been “democratized” as crowdsourcing yielded enterprises such as Wikipedia, the “encyclopedia” that anyone can edit, add to, and delete from. Internet search engines rank results not according to the merits and authority of the content, but by the number of votes cast by ... you guessed it: mostly dense people (who now congregate on social networks). This widespread and much-lauded vandalism reflects the utter collapse and disintegration of the education system which turns out illiterate, nescient, and irrational graduates having annihilated its standards in order to embrace them as students in the first place.
The Stupid, dimly aware of their innate inferiority, are anti-elitist, anti-intellectual, and anti-excellence. But, while in the past these remained mere sentiments, today they have become an ethos, a code of conduct, a set of values and ideals. It is politically incorrect and impolite to claim any advantage and superiority. Egalitarianism is running amok. Everyone is equal: doctors and their patients; professors and their students; experts and laymen alike.
Continue with technology:
In an act of self-preservation, past civilizations had confined The Stupid to certain settlements, replete with their drinking establishments, entertainments, and sports arenas. There the “intellectually-challenged” could safely torment each other with their vulgarities and rampant, uninformed idiocy. The advent of radio, television, and, most egregiously, the Internet has changed all that: now stupid people have unmitigated access to the kind of technology that allows them to pollute the airwaves and the broadband with their inferior analytic capacity, low-brow output, trivial observations, monosyllabic exclamations, and harebrained queries. Thus, the New Media have transformed stupidity from a mental endemic to a viral epidemic. The wise and knowledgeable may broadcast while the Stupid merely narrowcast – but the Stupid have the upper hand, what with Google, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, and YouTube decimating the traditional print and electronic media.
This technological empowerment is the crux of the problem: there are no barriers to entry, no institutional filters, and no erudite and experienced intermediaries to hold back the avalanche of doltish balderdash, the tsunami of nonsense, and the flood of misinformation, factoids, and conspiracies that corrupt our intellectual space. Commercial interests inevitably and invariably side with the brainless masses because of their superior aggregate purchasing power. The privatization of education is one manifestation of this creeping decadence. The mindless nature of television programming is another. The empty one-liners that comprise most “conversations” on social networks are its culmination. We are surrounded with clods, harassed by the lame-brained, criticized, censored, and ordered by simpletons. Welcome to the New Dark Ages.
The Misanthrope’s Manifesto
1. The unbridled growth of human populations leads to:
I. Resource depletion;
II. Environmental negative externalities;
III. A surge in violence;
IV. Reactive xenophobia (owing to migration, both legal and illegal);
V. A general dumbing-down of culture (as the absolute number of the less than bright rises); and
VI. Ochlocracy (as the mob leverages democracy to its advantage and creates anarchy followed by populist authoritarianism).
2. The continued survival of the species demands that:
I. We match medical standards, delivered healthcare and health-related goods and services with patients’ economic means. This will restore the mortality of infants, the old and the ill to equilibrium with our scarce resources;
II. Roll back the welfare state in all its forms and guises;
III. Prioritize medical treatment so as to effectively deny it to the terminally-sick, the extremely feeble-minded; the incurably insane; those with fatal hereditary illnesses; and the very old;
IV. Implement eugenic measures to deny procreation to those with fatal hereditary illnesses, the extremely feeble-minded; and the incurably insane;
V. Make contraception, abortion, and all other forms of family planning and population control widely available.
Back to Voting
Old Comments
Democracy might be aging and in dire need of updates, but it’s still the best game in town. Republics, on the other hand, are cracked beyond repair. What we need is a viable alternative to media manipulation and agenda bullying.
Sometimes worth and contribution have nothing to do with intelligence, just as many times stupidity has nothing to do with IQ.
Also, to belabor a point, a quotation from one of my three favorite people to quote, Winston Churchill, “A Democracy is the worst possible form of government. Except for all the others.”
My other two favorites of course are Twain and Fields, but that should go without saying!Which brings me to a Twain quote! (Churchill and Clemens, never the “Twain” shall meet? Sorry, just had to say it.)“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”
And while we’re at it, “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
Okay, how about one more, from W.C. “Hell, I never vote for anybody! I always vote against!” I guess some things never change.
Sorry, got “quote-itus” today, just trying to alleviate some of the ire I felt when I saw another “recipe for the advancement of man through segregation of the smart from the dumb.” Seen these not only throughout my life, but from my studies of history. And they all end the same, without the success this Nation has enjoyed with it’s current flawed, but proven system.
Why do these formulas always preclude people mingling and learning from each other? Oh wait, because that would mean hearing points of view that might not be up to someone else’s “standard of excellence.”
I don’t think the problem is dumbing down, it’s everyone forming groups that think alike, and then getting all their information from the sources that agree with how they see the world. Fear of hearing what you don’t want to hear.
Just sayin’!
It’s because most people are told what to think and they buy into it because it’s easier than thinking for one’s self.
“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” John F. Kennedy
“This will be the best security for maintaining our liberties. A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the religion of ignorance that tyranny begins.” Ben Franklin
Individual people have to have a little moral fortitude when it comes to fighting for and holding onto their liberty, which as Ron Paul has wisely said, is what the forefathers fought for, not democracy.
“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.” Ben Franklin
So while democracy is the will of the majority, it is affected by individual thought and effort, therefore it offers the best opportunity thus far devised to find a happy medium for existence and is worth fighting for. It allows for liberty at least, as well as monarchy and mob rule.
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.” Ben Franklin
Alas, as Franklin cautioned us, the Republic was doomed to fail because it leads to a new form of monarchy over time, as money can buy more and more influence and power over thought and the masses who believe they partake of a democratic process, when they do not. They are simply afforded the choice of the lesser of two evils provided to us by special interests who use this illusion to maintain power. We were not able to keep the Republic, as he feared, so to pursue liberty, we must take advantage of what democratic process is left to us.
Policy always leads to disaster because it suppresses thought in real time. The biggest problem with the human race is NOT stupidity, lack of paying attention, narcissism, or even corruption and crime. The biggest problem is acquiescence to coercion, whether it’s through neglect (give up liberty for security) or active support (promote any form of legitimizing the violation of basic human rights). Anything that ends with -cracy (or -archy) except for an- (meaning none) or litmo- (meaning me) is an attempt to legitimize the creation of policy that violates human rights.
Taxation is the #1 cause of suffering on this planet and has been for millenia. It is a form of slavery that is pernicious and insidious, crushing by degrees the otherwise rampant individuality that would otherwise be expressed by nearly every human being, and which would otherwise prevent far more suffering than it would allow. Gun ownership reduces crime.
See The Philosophy of Liberty for more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muHg86Mys7I
Before I went to college, I had absolutely no clue about anything to do with ideology, politics, political science… anything. However, I was still allowed to vote. Since I did not know anything about anything, I parroted the opinions of the people around me who seemed to have strong, firm opinions. They seemed to know what they were talking about. I can’t remember if I bothered to vote the first time I was allowed to, but if I did, I certainly did not know what I was doing or why. If I had been living in the USA in the Deep South in 1950 I would definitely have been against equal rights.
My IQ was pretty high… I guess I would be in the managerial class according to the breakdown above. But I could not tell a beef sausage from a tofu wiener before I went to college. I had literally no way of deciding between political candidates or of making any kind of informed choice about any option. I was lucky to get to go to college. In those days it was encouraged, and relatively cheap, due to government, tax dollar-subsidized education.
Independent thinking is a great idea, but people have to have the tools to do this. It’s not a matter of raw IQ. And if you don’t have the tools, you are less likely to want them. Watched “Beauty and the Geek” the other night and one of the Australian beauties (a beautician) did not know that the world was round. She said, “I never thought about it. We’re just, you know, here.”
A lot of Americans absolutely adored Sarah Palin and thought she’d be a great vice-president, even though she didn’t know (eg.)that there are actually two Koreas. They didn’t know that either!
Propose everyone (not just immigrants) have to at least take a standard citizenship test before voting (eg. to be sure they actually know which country they are in). Propose mandatory parenthood training before people are allowed to have children!
But who will pay for this? Uneducated people will not agree to pay taxes to pay for something they don’t value.
My two cents.
“Independent thinking is a great idea, but people have to have the tools to do this.”
Check out Charlotte Thompson Iserbyt’s “Deliberate Dumbing Down of America” and John Taylor Gatto’s “Underground History of American Education”. These books are kind of dense, so if you’re bored with them, try some John Holt books. These books contain information that will help you understand that your second “have” in the quote above should be a “retain”, and that one of the ways to keep those skills is to stay away from institutions that governments use to brainwash people.
Of course, you need resources to strengthen and hone independent thinking skills. It’s only through cooperation and division of labor (which are furthered by LESS independent thinking) that human society makes great advancements. Cooperating and specializing while keeping an independent mind is a delicate balancing act. It tends to be agitated out of balance - either through the desperation of poverty or through the depredation of governments.
However, I think the 7 billion of us on the planet today are here because we’ve evolved the skills necessary to re-balance. “Devil’s Advocate” is a good sample meme. Humility, Courage, Imagination, even the seven “vices”, I think, are also important developments that help protect our independence of mind.
Bet you anything that I agree with the books you cite. (Haven’t read them, no time, too busy, anyway I probably already agree with them.)(Ha! but true.)
Of course you (one) should keep critical thinking skills once you have (one has) them. But if your parents don’t have them and nobody in your neighborhood has them and the minister at your church says that too much thinking is “Of the Devil” and that you gotta just have Faith and believe what you’re told… where are these skills supposed to come from?
It’s the biggest problem in the whole wide world, if you ask me. How to bootstrap.
I guess some of us are here because our parents and other ancestors and associates evolved skills… on the other hand, from what I can gather, a lot of us are here because of inadequate access to and knowledge of birth control.
Critical thinking skills come from the same place as walking, breathing, and eating skills. They are evolved, inborn traits. It takes a lot of work to destroy them (hence your minister, and state education, and TV advertising, etc…).
You are showing what I would call a misapprehension. It seems that you assume the embryo is a blank slate. I think it’s more like a mustard seed - it only needs some energy and a (half-decent) environment to grow into its own innate shape, which includes critical thinking skills. I will always stand by my claim that those with weak abilities to reason (that aren’t the result of a genetic mutation or physical damage to the embryo they started as) used to have stronger abilities, but they’ve been trained to let them atrophy.
Imagine how long it would take to learn to walk (and how little you’d enjoy it) if your parents held and guided your ankles, knees, and thighs for you first 10,000 steps. I think you’d be a cripple, and I think it’s an apt analogy to compulsory schooling.
^ What they said. Who? All of them. Or something completely different, should someone post something else after I do.
All joking aside, I agree with a lot of what has been said here:
- Wishy washers are the problem.
- Stupidity and IQ are two totally different things.
- One needs to have AND retain the tools to adequately contribute their opinions (whether they be independent or not)
- While the ability for critical thinking skills may start with the embryo, it is certainly helped along by a nurturing environment comprised of people who were lucky enough (or worked hard enough) to be able to provide this kind of nurturing, or dumbed down to nothingness by preachers of the ‘Everything that I cannot control you with or that allows original thought is the Devil’ sort
- Intelligent people (or at least people who have the ability to choose to be smart) do not always see the value in working towards intelligent thought.
And I might add the following, too. I truly believe that laziness has, is and will continue to be the bane of humanity, and I further believe that not only the government knows this, it encourages it by helping potentially smart people (consciously?) choose to stay dumb. Technology also greatly contributes to laziness, and I am often scared to find that the tools that often allow me to become smarter, or help others who would otherwise be out of reach develop smart thinking, are also the tools that enable the lazy and yet to be smartitized people to say stuff like ‘Jersey Shore is the best freakin thing since sliced bread’ on Twitter. What scares me most of all is how many followers they get.
In the end, I am forever frustrated by the fact that while it may take a village to raise a child, all a child needs to never achieve his or her full potential is a village full of my fellow lazy humans. Or a twitter account.