I don't believe that intelligence can be measured. Having taken I.Q tests in the past, I fail spectacularly at them - getting ridiculously low results such as 75. An I.Q of 75 means I am a vegetable, and shouldn't know how to use a computer let alone maintain a readable blog. But I am not very intelligent; all I am really good at is memorising facts and dates by rote. Having said that, I know I am more intelligent than some people - even some people with University degrees, but then I guess that nowadays, having a degree doesn't mean that one is necessarily more intelligent or able than the rest of us. Anyone can go to University these days, and do a degree in something like James Bond films - all you have to do is subject yourself to a sausage factory mentality for three years, regurgitate unoriginal and derivative essays and you're laughing. Now, for people like me who can't quite fit into any category, well that's another story. I'd go back to the days, as I have said before, where University was the province of the truly intelligent and the Upper Classes. Egalitarianism is, of course, a monstrous notion. Any comments/suggestions would be welcome in the comment box...
By the way, I got this idea because Fr Finigan has put up a post about Language, Liturgy and Understanding - understanding in the literal sense.
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
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...I guess that nowadays, having a degree doesn't mean that one is necessarily more intelligent or able than the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteYou can say THAT again. The universities are so busy filling kids full of left-wing slogans that they are left with no time to educate them. When I was in college in the late '80s-early '90s, there was already little left in the way of intellectual rigor, especially in the humanities. It was possible, for instance, to major in English without ever seriously studying Shakespeare. Critical thinking was out the window (deliberately, to leave people vulnerable to indoctrination) and I noticed quite a number of my fellow students couldn't put together coherent sentences. Then there were the resources devoted to programs that prepare students for absolutely nothing, like "women's studies," "Chicano studies," and what was known in my college days as "Pan-African studies." These were nothing more than courses in demagoguery.
Even where you have some measure of academic rigor, there is still a difference between "book smarts" and wisdom. I went to law school with people who were near the top of the class, but then after law school were perfectly embarrassing on their hind legs. There are some things that you either know or don't know, and if you don't know them, you're not going to learn them in school.
Anyway, there's my $0.02 -- at inflated rates, of course.