Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!cornell!rochester!rutgers!apple!voder!kontron!optilink!cramer
From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: The Cincinnatus Society of Pinheads
Message-ID: <578@optilink.UUCP>
Date: 20 Oct 88 16:50:22 GMT
References: <15638@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <7068@dasys1.UUCP>
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
Lines: 38

In article <7068@dasys1.UUCP>, tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff) writes:
> In article <15638@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> weemba@garnet.berkeley.edu (Obnoxious Math Grad Student) writes:
> >...AAARGH!  I *HATE* these Hi-IQ societies, starting with MENSA and work-
> >ing your way down (or "up", as the members would say)...
> 
> >So my questions are: what can or might I do?...
> 
> Much as Matt hates to be told he's right :-), I must agree with him on
> this one.  Nothing betrays pseudo-intellectualism like the sick
> obsession with standardized test scores these IQ societies evince.
> What these poor "gifted" victim-brats don't realize is that the
> inclination to brag about your IQ reveals a character flaw whose
> damaging impact in your life is sure to outweigh the boost of
> "intelligence" over the long haul.  As an undergraduate flirtation
> it is something to be outgrown; past that it's sociopathic.
> 
> Tom Neff			UUCP: ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff

I was a member of Mensa for a year (trying to meet young women --
THAT was a waste), and overall, the members weren't "obsessed" with
IQ scores -- most of them had joined Mensa for the same reason I had.
In the Los Angeles area, where I was living at the time, the members
were disproportionately computer programmers and engineers (showing
what a brilliant occupation we have :-)).  There were a few semi-
weird (and one TRULY weird) person in Mensa that fits Mr. Neff's
description, but they were exceptional.  (These crazies were also
the ones truly COMMITTED to Mensa).

I have no experience with the even higher pretension societies.






-- 
Clayton E. Cramer
..!ames!pyramid!kontron!optilin!cramer