Committees have been with us, of course, since the days of the woolly mammoth and the sabre-toothed tiger. And, we all know that the brightest half of a committee gets cancelled by the other, leaving everything in the middle of the road.
It is very easy to overlook the ubiquitous fact that committees regulate virtually all aspects of human existence. Once we notice that the most literate half of the population, not to mention the upper two percent, has completely disappeared from the viewfinder of majority opinion, we can grasp firmly how it is that anybody who can read at all well, has been born mentally gifted. And, the more agile and athletic among us can even begin to suspect that intelligence quotients are just another crock of cabbage cooked up or at least bought and paid for by the semi-literate and the ill-informed.
Far from being unimportant and inconsequential, the strange phenomenon being measured by intelligence quotients is proficiency with language itself. And, all of humanity's social sciences are resting squarely on a foundation of ignorance, stupidity and illiteracy.
Do we need a Phd. to calculate how much faster we can read and think if we don't move our lips? (Use a clock wirh a second hand.)
Are we aware that pushing a button in response to blinking light may yet be the world's simplest IQ or literacy test? (Try intelligence, reaction time in a Google search.)
People, in the main, learn to read by reading. Conflab to some degree is required to set things in motion. "A" sounds like this. "B" sounds like that. In general, three-year-olds can be taught to read as well as politicians in about three months according to some books. However, it is generally true that those who do not read well by puberty, never do read well, with few exceptions. Ninety-five percent of the activities of present day elementary and high schools may well be classified as literacy prevention when the world finally sees its first honest schools. Listening to teachers talk for hours, days, weeks, months and years on end ranks with watching prime time television as a lobotomy inducing technique.
The impact of honest evaluations and standards of literacy on the self-esteem of politicians, corporate executives and school board trustees is exceedingly unlikely to be unimportant and inconsequential given that the race is not to the swift and the medium is the message. When the time comes it may be even more obvious than it is today that virtually all human experience is subject to corruption, bribery and the calculated half-truth. But, if human evolution is to progress, at some point the proficiency scores of individuals will become public information.
Looking to the future, then, as to the past, whenever we surmount a problem or hill, another, shortly looms up ahead.
Belief in the absurd, the impossible and the ridiculous is all very well if you are a Presbyterian, an Anglican, a Baptist or a homosexual. Science marches to a different drummer - logic and reason.
The first rule is that all assumptions must be considered.
The second is that we must understand the universe as it is and not confuse how it is with how we wish it to be.
The most intelligent or literate 2% of the population are less successful than the 3% known as morons, idiots and imbeciles. Success is the leading indicator of mediocrity with words.


This item by George Noviss was included in Montage July-August 2004, The Mensa Newsletter for Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener/Waterloo, London, Windsor/Sarnia

HOME