Why should the most intelligent or
literate 2% of a population be less successful than that 3% which is usually
identified as morons, idiots and imbeciles? "The total number of members who have lapsed between 1983 and 1987 is 2,886, a figure that would double our present membership". Wendy Marsh, MC2, April 1989.
Perhaps it is best to dwell on the positive.
Perhaps it is best to avoid unnecessary negatives.
I can say that I have viewed as positive the fact that many other Mensans have reported experiences as miserable as my own.
I have owned a house with a swimming pool within sight of Beverley Hills.
I have walked the streets of Toronto for a full year in search of work, ten years later.
High school teachers often gave me failing grades. In one year, I was given eight of them at once. I have been expelled from schools and fired from jobs. In many classrooms I cannot keep pace with immigrants (in some psychology texts, the correlation between academic achievement and human intelligence is reported as +.50).
Today I work as a computer programmer in a factory, and earn less than the fork-lift drivers. I have worked for many a boss who dictated his own letters, but whose ideas of excellent communications skills were Mickey Mouse.
Most of my life I have regarded unnecessary socializing as a threat to my life.
I'm all for a clubhouse or reading room for the negative thinkers, which opens every Friday night.
Isn't it time to find out what people with high I.Q. scores actually look like?
This item by George Noviss was included in Montage (Toronto Mensa) Dec '89-Jan '90.
The owl keeps an eye on things at the pumping station on the corner of Lawrence & Caledonia, Toronto, Ont.
