Intelligence Quotient

Hey, Americans.  If you’re interested to know the average IQ in your state, check this out.

Personally, I’m extremely suspicious of this.

What is IQ in the first place?  Someone once said, and I think he nailed it, “Intelligence is what IQ tests measure.”

Suppose I were to say I have a high IQ.  What would that mean? I believe it mostly means that the guy who wrote the test thinks a lot like I do.  Both his parents and my own placed a high value on western education, and thus we’re both pretty sharp at the same, somewhat arbitrary, mental tasks.

I support that by noting, as I suspected would be the case, that Massachusetts placed #1.  Do they really have “smart” people there?  Well, maybe, but they certainly have a lot of highly educated people coming out of their universities.

Another reason to be suspicious: There are apparently intelligent people on both sides of the great political schism in the U.S.  If someone with a high IQ can think it’s a reasonable idea to kick Bahamians off rescue boats, let people die of treatable diseases, and destroy the environment for profit, then I’m not sure there is anything whatsoever of any real importance connected with the subject.