For those of you who don't know, Mensa is a worldwide high IQ society. It is meant to be composed of the smartest 2% of the population, and their goal is to...wait, what is their goal? According to the international Mensa web site:
"The original aims were, as they are today, to create a society that is non-political and free from all racial or religious distinctions.
Mensa has three stated purposes: to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity, to encourage research in the nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence, and to promote stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its members."
How does the organization pursue those aims? By doing nothing! After all, to create a non-political and distinction-free society, that really is the best method. First of all, politics doesn't have to be a bad thing; it could be a collaboration and cooperation of multiple entities, who take each others differences into account and work to craft solutions which appeal to as many people as possible. To create a non-political society is to destroy society, as politics in some form or another is a necessary component of society. Politics is, at a basic level, interaction which shapes distributions of power. Also, by encouraging the elimination of racial and religious distinctions, they are promoting a society of homogeneity doomed to repeat past mistakes as people pretend to ignore difference rather than accept it, and would most likely lead to genocide in order to preserve a status quo with no other distinctions. So, already, I have accused Mensa of being chaotic (a nod to my anarchist friend, I was going to put anarchist but figured it would further the negative stigma given to that movement) and fascist. Did I mention I'm a member of this group?
Let's dissect their second claim now. They want to identify and foster human intelligence. This is indeed true. In fact, it may be the only thing they really like to do. Considering intelligence is essentially subjective and impossible to measure, Mensa has a lot of courage to declare it can identify the smartest 2 percent of the population. One of my biggest problems with the intelligence tests is that people with a high well-rounded intelligence will always pass, but people with a specific scope of intelligence could appear to be complete retards. Visionaries and artists could be labeled as idiots because they can't add numbers in their head quickly or remember the details of an uninteresting article read to them a half hour earlier, or can't understand abstract analogies and groupings. All the Mensa test proves is that you're smart enough to answer the questions on the Mensa test, period. It doesn't measure intelligence. As for their fostering human intelligence, they do this mainly through brain games, which is like their version of crack cocaine. Their favorite thing to do is make up new games and play them. Benefit of humanity? I don't see any of that message coming through in national or local publications.
To encourage research in the nature, characteristics, and use of intelligence. Well, in 60 years they seem to be at the back of the bandwagon in their perspectives on the nature and characteristics of intelligence. In what some people refer to as the postmodern age, we are starting to realize how relative many things are. And yet Mensa refuses to budge, because if they did, well then their elite society would cease to exist, right? The guy flipping their burgers could come up with a more efficient way to run a fast food restaurant and be considered intelligent for that, even though he relies on the cash register to tell him how much change to give people. This would make some of these geeks flip their lids! There have to be stupid people for them to be the cream of the crop! There's no way people should be valued individually in their eyes. As for the use of intelligence? Aren't you supposed to use it to, you know, help people? Do something positive as opposed to negative? Impart knowledge to others? Seems kind of self-evident to me.
To promote stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its members. This is indeed true, and Mensa fulfills this commitment through conferences where members show off neat games which make no contribution to society, talk about high minded concepts which currently have no bearing on the lives of most people, and think of ways to use their intelligence for personal gain.
Why so severely criticize an organization I belong to? Because I joined it in the hopes of finding people who I could connect with who are socially aware and capable of developing innovative strategies to improve social, economic, and environmental conditions. I found a big society of self-centered, apathetic, and downright out of touch people. Just this week, I was pushed over the edge by an email I received. Usually, Mensa only contacts me to let me know about brain game conventions and to ask me for money. However, my assistance was recently requested. Was it for solving community problems? No! It was to help corporations develop new marketing strategies and products! All this potential is being put to a selfish, capitalist purpose while people are starving to death, dying of AIDS, being discriminated against, being killed because they were born into a group that somebody didn't like, watching their ecosystem grow progressively worse, and so on.
If Mensa replied to my accusations, I'm sure they'd have examples handy of their community programs and the good things they've done. It doesn't matter. That should be their focus, they should harness the talent of their ranks not to establish the religion of capitalism and to replace race with class war, not to abstain from politics, but to devote themselves to progressive change. Ideas of progressive change could vary, and Mensa could end up producing some conservative frameworks, which I'm always not a fan of, but at least the concept of trying to make things better would be in place. The fact of the matter is that Mensa focuses on their social events, their games, and money. And for that reason, I'm done. I'm not paying my dues any more. I proved I'm smart enough to be one of you, and now I'm going to move away from your granfalloon of a group and find the intelligent people you shun, and I'm going to do something while you sit on your asses, run your mouths, and feed your pocketbooks.
All groups of humans are subject to the failings of humans in general. Among those are; ego, greed, elitism, and sloth. This is especially true in large groups and those with a broad agenda.
The two party system that tries to split every issue to hold an opposing position from the other party is perhaps the most extreme pair of examples. Large corporations with diverse missions become mired in the same problems. Since the members of every group are human there is no way to entirely prevent it.
The most effective organizations are those with the narrowest focus. Single issue interest groups are better agents of political change than progressive (or conservative) coalitions. Even businesses with a very limited and specific mission are generally much more efficient. Mensa is actually fairly successful at its core purpose of giving good test takers a group to join that identifies them as 'elite.' If they sought to effect change as well that would cause division among their members, and likely hinder their main mission. Smart people are not more likely to have the same opinion, but they are definitely harder to argue out of their positions.
I know this truth is a fact taught at business schools, I hope that political science courses cover examples of it as well.
"A faith that cannot survive collision with the truth is not worth many regrets."
-Arthur C. Clarke
You seem to be complaining about MENSA not doing something that you should have been aware that they were not going to do before you joined.
It seems that they are fairly clear that they have no intention of being political and as you recognize yourself in this blog, not much can happen without that.
Even to discuss intelligence becomes a highly charged political excercise. Look at what happened to Lawrence Summers the President of Harvard for even postulating that their might be minute differences in intelligence between the sexes at the extreme right end of the bell curve. And look what happened to James Watson, the nobel prize winning scientist who discovered the double helix structure of the gene when he cited peer reviewed science about differing IQs between the races.
Why would an organization composed of extremely intelligent people with a stated goal of remaining non-political want to bring that kind of negative politics down upon themselves? That would be the opposite of intelligent! Of course they do nothing!
I think it is ironic that you note that the MENSA tests are not very good measures of intelligence and then you prove that by your own example of joining an organization with a long and well known history of doing nothing very significant and thinking that it would be something completely different from what the simplest sort of research would have revealed. Not the greatest exhibit of your own intelligence and perhaps proof that the MENSA membership tests which you passed are not all that effective.
If you really want to address things like world poverty, a little intelligent research will reveal to you that there are many organizations with far better track records at actually accomplishing your stated goals. Perhaps you should join one of these. A little more research will show that while there is some correlation, there are better predictors of success in almost any endeavor whether it be business, politics or even science than raw intelligence. For example, nobody accuses George Bush of being MENSA material yet he climbed to the APEX of politics and history may repeat itself in that respect because John McCain was near the very bottom of his class in the Naval Academy.
The real key to accomplishing a goal whether it be world poverty or winning the Presidency is not raw intelligence but rather narrow focus and dogged determination.
I never claimed that intelligence is necessary or key for accomplishing a goal; however, those with a diverse intelligence I believe have insights that would help that process. Indeed hard work, focus, and the right connections will obtain victory. I simply contend that a group of genii should use their intelligence for the benefit of oppressed and struggling people rather than for themselves and other elites. I would rather have people with diverse and powerful intelligence helping me towards a goal than not, no matter if I could attain it without them.
I am well aware of the organizations which have worked towards various forms of social change and am active in a few that I believe have the potential to make what I see as a positive impact. And while history and trends must be taken into consideration, what also should be taken into consideration is the power that a group of self-proclaimed intellectual elites could have in various affairs should they decide to organize and act in any way.
The comment making a stab at my intelligence was in my opinion inappropriate, but your point is valid and here is my response: I believe that due to the level of my frustration with the organization and its members that I joined without knowing what they were about or what they did. You'll note in the post that I used the word "hoped." I had hopes that there was at least a faction within the group that would meet my hopes. I did not find this faction. I am not attempting to cry out for being duped, rather I am expressing my distaste for an organization that has not taken a more socially proactive stance despite its resources and whose members are so thoroughly socially inactive. When I use socially, I am currently using it in the context of addressing issues in the global society and its parts, not in the context of a group, hence Mensa is socially active within its own high IQ society (otherwise it wouldn't exist) but not within local, regional, national, and global communities.
Mensa does not shy away from publishing the findings of its various members, and if those findings are contested, it would be the job of the individual to defend their position. Hence, I do not see why, in addition to science, society could not be more heavily addressed by members. I realize now that I probably came down too hard on the organization; the fault is of the members and leadership, but considering those people make up the organization, I have a problem with the organization. I'm not asking for Mensa to itself step into the crossfire, but to foster social consciousness and action in its members in addition to discussions of intelligence, science, and the creation of new brain teasers and tests.
Now, you claim that to discuss intelligence has become a political exercise. In that case, Mensa has a conflict between two of it's founding principles, that of investigating intelligence for the benefit of humanity and that of being non-political. Therefore, the organization must make a choice: become more political or cease to study intelligence. I personally think that the former would be less damaging to the organization's core than the latter. Additionally, Mensa works with corporations and recruits members to work on marketing. This could be construed as support for the capitalist system, which is political and economic. Another violation of principle. My point is, why not encourage a broadening of interests? This wouldn't hurt the effectiveness of an organization looking to do nothing, but it could increase the impact of individual members.
While I take issue with the founding goals of the organization, what really gets to me is the fact that the members are content with the structure of the organization and beyond the occasional generic feel-good volunteer story, I see nothing published showing members going above and beyond the organization's mission. I find it odd that there is literally no activist pulse within the organization and that no members have tried to move the organization towards some sort of political focus in order to use their intelligence for the benefit of humanity. Yes, I am complaining about something I should have and did know when I joined. I am complaining because I hoped there was a silver lining and did not find one. But the main point of the post was not to complain, it was to communicate to this online community that there is an organization of smart people that are at best doing little to help and at worst helping to take advantage of "the masses" because I think that they should be aware of this and should consider the wasted potential.
I appreciate you reading my post and for the comment, it made me have to further evaluate my thoughts on the issue, and hopefully clarify my views in this reply.
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My Project
"Endure. In Enduring, Grow Strong."--Dak'kon, Planescape Torment
My understanding has always been that Mensa is primarily a social group. Perhaps the members belong to other activist groups, or work in fields with potential to benefit society? Chillbill is right...getting everyone on the same political and idealogical page would be nearly impossible. The members are probably far more effective in their individual pursuits than they would be as a group.
People sometimes join clubs because they are fun or they say something about the person's affinities. It's not always to change the world. I certainly didn't plan to change the world when I joined the New Kids on the Block fan club in eighth grade...it's kind of the same thing as Mensa.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Yeah, what I'm trying to get at is that these people recognize and believe that they have a gift, intelligence, and that said gift could benefit humanity. I'm not saying the organization as a whole should pick political positions, but that in encouraging members to use their gifts they should be fostering activism within their members. I don't want them on the same page at all, I just would like to see the members being involved. It dismays me that, even if the members are involved with philanthropic exploits, any great things they are doing are not getting attention within that social circle.
I understand that not all groups are about changing the world. However, Mensa, while primarily a social group, studies intelligence and other science "for the benefit of humanity." Why not include more social science in their publication? Why not create events designed to bring genius activists together? It just seems like such a waste to me. Whereas New Kids on the Block fans have a common interest, the common thread among Mensa members is that they all believe they are in at least one way inherently better than 98 percent of the population. My thing is, if you're going to say that, prove it by giving back to others. Giving back isn't that political, it's just the nice (and in my opinion right) thing to do. Instead of emailing members about exciting work developing new words for Italian beers, email them a list of volunteer opportunities in their community.
That being said, I totally get where you're coming from. I'm happy that this post is at least raising discussion on the issue.
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My Project
"Endure. In Enduring, Grow Strong."--Dak'kon, Planescape Torment
You are right about that. Sorry.
A representative from Mensa came to my Junior High 'Gifted and Talented' class and tried to get me to take the test. I didn't really like him and never did. I didn't find him very compelling and was pretty sure that he would not give me the information that I desperately needed at the time: "How to get a date".
I think mensa suffers from what I have seen in so many places, it is defeated by its own success. The mensa tests are old and we now know so much more about intelligence, social intelligence, and the creative mind. To change the test might mean that there are in fact smarter people than those in the mensa pecking order. So as it grows, it become irrelevant. The university tenuring system can be accused of the same thing and the world of business can appear just downright pig-headed and stupid.
The only was around happening in any group is if the personal ego can be destroyed and all are free to be flexible enough to evolve the group into something better. It seems that a pseudo-spiritual element would have to be involved here. Something that would mean that in entering into such an organization, everyone would have to be emotionally really stable. This can be difficult for some smart folks to begin with as seeing they are often not completely understood throughout life.