From: Tim Bates (tbates@karri.bhs.mq.edu.au)
Date: Sat Dec 19 1998 - 19:23:28 MST
Andrew Ducker said
>>Samael said
>>>some people would much rather be strong than smart
>>>...people are taking advantage of this rather than of becoming an einstein.
I replied
>>a. I have never met anyone who was glad that they were unintelligent.
>>b. The notion that people choose not to be Einstein and instead
>> take up sport is ludicrous.
>So those people who don't read books, but take part in sports aren't
>implicitly mqaking this choice then?
there is no such thing as an implicit choice: choices are explicit.
>The people who choose to watch
>Brainnumbing soaps rather than making use of their intelligence?
they are making of their intelligence, it just doesn't run to much. As
Steve Jobs poitned out last week: the television is for swithcing off,
the computer for swithcing on. Those with something to switch on are not
watching the days of someone eleses life.
>The fact that 'smartie' is an insult, along with brainbox, etc.?
As Arthur Schopenhauer (german modern philosopher) pointed out: letting
someone know you are intelligent is very dangerous to your health: they
realise that no amount of "exercise" will allow them to better you and
will often strike preemptively.
>I've worked in various jobs previous tpo the last few years, working with
>the general public and the majority of them don't give a damn about
>intelligence as ,omg as they have something on the box to keep them
>contented and a stomach full of food.
Ahh, we agree on the result, we simply differ upon how we arrived at th
eresult. you argue it was an implicit choice and i that it was highly
determined. The fact that the heritability of IQ _rises_ rather than
declines over the life span tends to support my contention.
cheerio,
tim
(PS, I am glad i responded ;-)
____________________
"The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders
of the Western world. No first world country has ever managed to
eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity -- much less
dissent."
Gore Vidal.
That quotation can be found, ironically and conveniently enough, on
Microsoft's Bookshelf 98 CD-ROM
http://www.salonmagazine.com/21st/
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