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| #Post#: 2711-------------------------------------------------- | |
| IQ and the Economics of Nations | |
| By: Kerry Date: July 29, 2015, 4:04 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| Many people today believe "all men are created equal" and | |
| assume that while some individuals are more intelligent than | |
| others in any culture every nation is about equal. Tests have | |
| not borne this out however. Go to this site | |
| http://www.photius.com/rankings/national_iq_scores_country_ranks.html<br | |
| />for a list of several countries. | |
| In 2006, a book was written showing a connection between | |
| national intelligence and the standard of living. From Wikipedia | |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_Global_Inequality: | |
| IQ and Global Inequality is a 2006 book by psychologist Richard | |
| Lynn and political scientist Tatu Vanhanen. IQ and Global | |
| Inequality is follow-up to their 2002 book IQ and the Wealth of | |
| Nations, an expansion of the argument that international | |
| differences in current economic development are due in part to | |
| differences in average national intelligence as indicated by | |
| national IQ estimates, and a response to critics. The book was | |
| published by the controversial Washington Summit Publishers. | |
| Lynn and Vanhanen's research on national IQs has attracted | |
| widespread criticism of the book's scores, methodology, and | |
| conclusions. The book was positively received by some long time | |
| supporters of Lynn's research, including J. Philippe Rushton. | |
| Of course, many people objected to the book's conclusions. | |
| The book received a mixed reception with most academics | |
| dismissing the work. | |
| Some of the criticism however was more over details -- how much | |
| the IQ differential was -- than the conclusions. | |
| The study A systematic literature review of the average IQ of | |
| sub-Saharan Africans by Jelte M. Wicherts and colleagues stated | |
| that: | |
| "For instance, Lynn and Vanhanen (2006) accorded a national IQ | |
| of 69 to Nigeria on the basis of three samples (Fahrmeier, 1975; | |
| Ferron, 1965; Wober, 1969), but they did not consider other | |
| relevant published studies that indicated that average IQ in | |
| Nigeria is considerably higher than 70 (Maqsud, 1980a,b; Nenty & | |
| Dinero, 1981; Okunrotifa, 1976). As Lynn rightly remarked during | |
| the 2006 conference of the International Society for | |
| Intelligence Research (ISIR), performing a literature review | |
| involves making a lot of choices. Nonetheless, an important | |
| drawback of Lynn (and Vanhanen)'s reviews of the literature is | |
| that they are unsystematic." | |
| There are people too who say the low IQ scores are the result | |
| of lack of education of the people tested or cultural bias in | |
| the tests. | |
| Whatever you theorize about the situation, it should be | |
| apparent that the world has a problem. Africa and Latin | |
| America have problems. Arab countries have problems. Some | |
| Asian countries like Pakistan have problems. | |
| Let's take Pakistan as an example. The average IQ there is said | |
| to be 84. That means half the population there would be | |
| considered "mentally deficient" in a culture where the IQ is | |
| 100. I believe it also means only 5% would test as "average or | |
| above" with an IQ of 100 or more. | |
| Oner interesting country is Japan with an IQ of 105, the third | |
| best globally; yet before World War II, they scored much lower | |
| on IQ tests. Part of that is easily explained since before | |
| the war, marrying first cousins was widespread and this produced | |
| genetic defects including mental problems. They used to lock | |
| up children with the worst defects so no one ever saw them; | |
| and those children didn't reproduce, thus there was a tendency | |
| for some defective genes to drop out of the gene pool. When | |
| they stopped marrying their cousins as much after the war | |
| because it was frowned on by Westerners, their national IQ | |
| soared. | |
| Another interesting country from this perspective of marrying | |
| cousins is Syria where the practice is still common, and their | |
| average IQ is 84. Other birth defects are also common. In | |
| Pakistan, it's estimated that 70% of all marriages are between | |
| close relatives. It's common in Muslim countries. The BBC | |
| http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/4442010.stm<br | |
| />said, in 2005: | |
| Now, one Labour MP is calling for an end to the practice. "We | |
| have to stop this tradition of first cousin marriages," Keighley | |
| MP Ann Cryer tells Newsnight. | |
| Mrs Cryer believes an open debate on the subject is needed | |
| because - despite the risks - cousin marriage remains very | |
| popular. | |
| Mrs Cryer's constituency is in the Bradford area, where the | |
| rates of cousin marriage are well above the national average. It | |
| is estimated that three out of four marriages within Bradford's | |
| Pakistani community are between first cousins. | |
| The practice remains so popular because the community believes | |
| there are real benefits to marrying in the family. Many British | |
| Pakistanis celebrate cousin marriage because it is thought to | |
| generate more stable relationships. | |
| Ending marriages between cousins may contribute to the problem; | |
| but there are other factors too, some of which cannot be cured | |
| by education. Education is not going to be the answer if | |
| people lack the intelligence to benefit from it. | |
| The world in general doesn't seem ready to address the problem, | |
| so we can expect the wide disparity in wealth and living | |
| standards to continue. | |
| I also wonder how the present trends of immigration are going to | |
| affect the world as people from poor countries continue to move | |
| into richer countries. Can we expect a "dumbing down" of the | |
| European countries as immigrants continue to flee the poverty in | |
| their own countries? Can we expect a "dumbing down" of the US | |
| as poor people from Latin America flee the poverty there? | |
| The answer may be no since birth control is becoming a bigger | |
| factor. There are places in this world where if you are poor, | |
| you need to have as many children as possible to take care of | |
| you when you're old. In general, IQ and money are related -- | |
| the brighter you are, the more likely you'll have money. So | |
| for a long time, the poor needing to have as many children as | |
| they could also meant the less intelligent would having more | |
| children. This has to be a factor, but I don't know how big of | |
| a factor it is. I do know that people in Arab countries are | |
| beginning to use birth control more; and time will tell if IQs | |
| go up as a result. | |
| Things are so complicated, I wonder if they can be figured out. | |
| Birth control might improve the national IQ in Venezuela (where | |
| the average IQ is 84); but with the sanctions in place, | |
| condoms and other forms of birth control are hard to find | |
| http://panampost.com/sabrina-martin/2015/07/28/pregnancies-stds-bloom-in-venezu… | |
| /> | |
| Birth-control products have all but vanished from Venezuela. A | |
| mere 15 percent of the normal supply remain available, according | |
| to Freddy Ceballos, president of Venezuela�s Pharmaceutical | |
| Federation. With prices skyrocketing for the few available in | |
| stores, Venezuelan women are resorting to drugs for other | |
| purposes, risking their health with dangerous substances. | |
| On July 26, Ceballos also told Venezuelan outlet Sumarium his | |
| deep concern over the fact that distributors cannot assure when | |
| the drugs will be available again. Because of tight | |
| foreign-currency controls, they depend exclusively on government | |
| quotas to purchase US dollars with which to import goods. | |
| �Laboratories don�t have the raw materials to produce the | |
| medication, and most products are imported,� explained Carlos | |
| Meza, who works at a drugstore and believes the government�s | |
| delays in assigning dollars to drug companies are to blame. | |
| The shortages that started six months ago affect both birth | |
| control pills and condoms, bringing upon three major health | |
| public issues in Venezuela: unwanted pregnancies, teen | |
| pregnancies, and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. | |
| Dulce Mar�a Blanco de Figallo assures that in Campo Alegre, | |
| where she owns and operates a pharmacy, �pregnancy rates have | |
| increased 50 percent, and these numbers are similar across the | |
| country.� Campo Alegre is a low-income area in Aragua state�s | |
| capital, Maracay. | |
| Like it or not, poverty is a powerful motivation for women to | |
| abort. Add the lack of birth control to the food shortages, | |
| and you see a recipe for abortion rates going up -- and a rise | |
| of unwanted children to parents who choose not to abort. If | |
| something is not done to raise IQ in Venezuela, how can they | |
| ever solve their problems? | |
| Does low IQ relate to terrorism? I think it might. I think | |
| areas where the average IQ is low will probably be poor; and | |
| people will resent richer countries. If someone is poor and | |
| not too bright, we shouldn't be too surprised to see them doing | |
| irrational or stupid things; and a few bright leaders can dupe | |
| a lot of uneducated and not so intelligent masses. | |
| It depresses me. | |
| #Post#: 2714-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: IQ and the Economics of Nations | |
| By: Piper Date: July 29, 2015, 6:16 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [font=trebuchet ms]I guess it all depends on what you mean by | |
| intelligence. God's outlook on intelligence is likely much | |
| different than ours. Too much high IQ often breeds evil, | |
| instead of being used for good. Is it better to be 'simple' and | |
| obedient and trusting of God, or is it better to be highly | |
| intelligent and think that you ARE God? | |
| And, we know that wisdom and intelligence are two different | |
| things. A man can be 'book- smart', but be the biggest moron | |
| around, not understanding the simplest of things that create | |
| love and harmony, the things that truly bind and unite people. | |
| Creatures are designed to be intelligent at being what God | |
| intended them to be. Their specific brand of intelligence helps | |
| them survive. | |
| Only man is intelligent enough to conceive of global destruction | |
| and potentially carry it out. | |
| And, how "intelligent" is that? | |
| Without love, there is a point where intelligence becomes very | |
| dangerous, and, ironically, even self-destructive. | |
| Leads me to believe that somehow love is what determines true | |
| intelligence. | |
| God is love. Who is more intelligent than God? | |
| (And, who is more " omnipresent" than Kerry? ;D ;) ) | |
| If people experienced love, knew and understood what it is, | |
| would they be able to do the things ISIS does? I think it is | |
| love that is missing in their lives, not intelligence as we | |
| think of intelligence. | |
| [/font] | |
| #Post#: 2719-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: IQ and the Economics of Nations | |
| By: Kerry Date: July 29, 2015, 7:37 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [quote author=Piper link=topic=312.msg2714#msg2714 | |
| date=1438211776] | |
| I guess it all depends on what you mean by intelligence. God's | |
| outlook on intelligence is likely much different than ours. Too | |
| much high IQ often breeds evil, instead of being used for good. | |
| Is it better to be 'simple' and obedient and trusting of God, or | |
| is it better to be highly intelligent and think that you ARE | |
| God? [/quote] | |
| People are often afraid of people with high IQs. I can tell you | |
| that from personal experience. They're afraid of being | |
| outwitted. It most certainly is true that some bright people | |
| can become very bad people; but as a rule, fewer of them do | |
| than the less intelligent. | |
| People have seldom told me to my face they didn't want to be | |
| around me because I was intelligent; but I'd get that | |
| impression. Then I wondered about them. Why were they afraid | |
| of me when I no bad intentions towards them? Then I wondered if | |
| maybe they themselves liked to play tricks people and get away | |
| with it -- and figured they couldn't with me. | |
| I argue that wanting to deceive others or commit crimes is not | |
| intelligent. Betraying someone who is your friend is downright | |
| stupid. I also believe the longer someone tries to do shady | |
| things the dumber they will become. Life becomes too | |
| complicated for them. Just trying to remember all the lies some | |
| people tell would confuse me immensely. | |
| Statistics say there is a correlation between crime and IQ. | |
| Scientists are still arguing over why that is so. Here is an | |
| abstract | |
| https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/abstract.aspx?ID=183065<br | |
| />about an article on the topic -- emphasis mine. | |
| In arguing that IQ is a significant cause of crime, the | |
| researchers cite studies to indicate that criminal populations | |
| generally have an average IQ of about 92, 8 points below the | |
| mean. They also note that the relationship of IQ to criminality | |
| is especially pronounced in a small fraction of the population, | |
| primarily young men, who commit a disproportionate amount of | |
| crime and that high intelligence provides some protection | |
| against lapsing into criminality for persons who are otherwise | |
| at risk. Nonetheless, explanations of crime based on race, | |
| genetics, or biology have been shunned since the 1930's. From a | |
| sociology of knowledge perspective, the idea that traits, | |
| including IQ, are passed on through genes instead of through | |
| cultural transmission (learned behavior) is considered by many | |
| individuals to be empirically absurd and politically incorrect. | |
| Hence, a significant amount of controversy has been generated by | |
| researchers who contend that crime is based on low IQ. Critics | |
| point out that crime rates vary dramatically between and even | |
| within the same generation. They further indicate that, because | |
| IQ is not likely to increase or decrease in such a short span of | |
| time, IQ does not have a measurable bearing on crime. These | |
| critics insist that explanations of crime must be found | |
| elsewhere and emphasize traditional theories linking | |
| environmental factors such as culture, socioeconomic status, | |
| neighborhood, and peers with crime and delinquency. Many | |
| criminologists argue that intellectually disadvantaged persons | |
| are not more likely to commit crimes and indicate that efforts | |
| to link IQ, race, genetics, or biology to crime result in | |
| mean-spirited and repressive policy conclusions. | |
| I say pretending it's not true also leads to more bad results | |
| and "repressive policy conclusions." Telling people, "Go get | |
| an education" may be cruel, in fact, if what they need is a | |
| low-skill job. It may have been "evil" for the US to want | |
| to export all the "bad" jobs to poorer countries and then expect | |
| everyone in America to get educated and have great jobs. | |
| [quote]And, we know that wisdom and intelligence are two | |
| different things. A man can be 'book- smart', but be the | |
| biggest moron around, not understanding the simplest of things | |
| that create love and harmony, the things that truly bind and | |
| unite people.[/quote]I argue the two are connected. Without | |
| wisdom, a person's mind, no matter how bright it may be, will | |
| begin to grow dim; and a person who is not initially bright, if | |
| he attains wisdom, will begin to become more intelligent. | |
| [quote]Creatures are designed to be intelligent at being what | |
| God intended them to be. Their specific brand of intelligence | |
| helps them survive. | |
| Only man is intelligent enough to conceive of global destruction | |
| and potentially carry it out. | |
| And, how "intelligent" is that?[/quote] | |
| I don't think that's intelligent; and I also think if the | |
| average person on the street doesn't wise up and start acting | |
| more intelligent, the unscrupulous leaders who could produce | |
| global destruction just may do it. One of the most pressing | |
| problems in the world is who people trust. Everywhere you | |
| turn it seems we see people putting their faith in wicked men | |
| who gain power by using the old "divide and conquer" tactic. | |
| Is it intelligent to believe a politician who says, "I'm like | |
| you, and I'll fight for you against those other bad people." I | |
| don't think it is. I think if I trusted someone like that, I'd | |
| be failing to obey the Golden Rule -- wanting more rights and | |
| privileges for myself at others' expenses. In the end, that's | |
| stupid. It creates problems of all sorts; and it has that | |
| potential to end all life. What could be more stupid? | |
| The appeal of bad leaders is emotional, catering to our bad | |
| sides which often crave partiality. | |
| [quote]Without love, there is a point where intelligence becomes | |
| very dangerous, and, ironically, even | |
| self-destructive.[/quote]That's what I believe. If we use | |
| intelligence the wrong way, it becomes stupidity. | |
| [quote]Leads me to believe that somehow love is what determines | |
| true intelligence.[/quote] | |
| I see Love, Wisdom, and Power as three aspects of one thing. | |
| Someone is as strong as his weakest point; and if he is strong | |
| in power and wisdom (or intelligence) but fails to act lovingly, | |
| the wisdom and power will begin to deteriorate. | |
| One thing I've noticed in life is how the lack of curiosity | |
| affects people. I say if you care about people, love them, you | |
| will want to understand them; so you will have to listen to what | |
| they say, observe what they do, and try to figure out how best | |
| to fit with them. Love, if it really is love, forces us to | |
| try to understand -- and that is certainly a factor in | |
| intelligence, isn't it? | |
| [quote]If people experienced love, knew and understood what it | |
| is, would they be able to do the things ISIS does? I think it | |
| is love that is missing in their lives, not intelligence as we | |
| think of intelligence.[/quote] | |
| I'd say maybe it's both; but surely not all terrorists are | |
| stupid. | |
| Perhaps they've given up on love. The way their men treat | |
| women suggests to me they have. This too is stupid to me. No | |
| matter how times others have betrayed or disappointed you in | |
| love, if love is what you want, then you must assume there are | |
| other people like you who want love too. I'd kill myself if I | |
| thought no one else in this world wanted love. I wouldn't | |
| want to be in it -- or maybe I'd rage and turn to violence. | |
| Who knows? But it's stupid to think, if love is what you want, | |
| that you should give up on it. If you do that, for sure you'll | |
| never have it. This is like the person who gets frustrated | |
| because he can't fix something on his car so he smashes the | |
| windshield. A clever person knows his frustration is the | |
| result of caring about the car, so why pretend he doesn't care | |
| and smash the windshield? | |
| I think the smart thing to do, when disappointed and betrayed, | |
| is to evaluate the situation without trying to blame others, | |
| putting the emotions aside temporarily. "What if anything did I | |
| do wrong? Were there warning signals I should have seen? | |
| Should I have known better than to trust these people?" For | |
| me, "bad emotions" tell me to sit up and take notice -- | |
| something isn't going right. I should pay attention just the | |
| way I do if I feel pain when my hand gets in fire. What we | |
| call negative emotions are there for a reason just as pain is. | |
| Striking out randomly at others is counterproductive and not | |
| intelligent. Even if you don't care about others, it's | |
| almost always stupid to strike out at them since they'll apt to | |
| strike back at you -- and that may add to your problems. | |
| #Post#: 2720-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: IQ and the Economics of Nations | |
| By: Piper Date: July 30, 2015, 12:16 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [font=trebuchet ms]Kerry, | |
| First, I'm not afraid of your high IQ or intelligence. While all | |
| that has its advantages, I think your heart is what matters, and | |
| I think you have a good heart. If you force me to think, I | |
| might learn something new. If you go over my head, so what? I | |
| don't have to understand everything to have faith in you as a | |
| friend. | |
| What you said about some people needing (or being happiest with) | |
| a low-skill job makes sense. I think it sucks that so many | |
| honest jobs have been exported. | |
| Yes, the world needs better leaders, leaders with good morals | |
| and strong motivation. Finding such leaders may be difficult | |
| in a country such as ours, so ruled by money. | |
| Not many people know how to listen. It's become a thing with | |
| me. A trigger. My dad calls and wants to bark at me, expects | |
| me to hear him, but he tunes out when I try to talk to him. | |
| Doctors just want you to listen to them and agree so they can | |
| move on to the next patient, the next 15 minute appointment. | |
| When you hire someone to work for you, they don't even want to | |
| listen to your legitimate concerns. The whole world is in a mad | |
| rush, and listening takes time that no one is willing to give. | |
| Everyone is distracted and multi-tasking. I'm starting to get | |
| really impatient about people not listening to me. I wrote my | |
| dad and told him to not call me anymore, but to go back to | |
| writing letters-- and he thus far has ignored my letter. I | |
| don't want to deal with doctors at all. I dread needing to hire | |
| anyone to do anything. | |
| Sorry. Off topic. I'm honestly not very well-versed in | |
| politics. But I do know that intelligence has little to do with | |
| how 'good' a person is. There are so many factors that make | |
| each of us who we are. Who can sort it all out? | |
| [/font] | |
| #Post#: 2721-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: IQ and the Economics of Nations | |
| By: Kerry Date: July 30, 2015, 2:56 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [quote author=Piper link=topic=312.msg2720#msg2720 | |
| date=1438276574] | |
| First, I'm not afraid of your high IQ or intelligence. While all | |
| that has its advantages, I think your heart is what matters, and | |
| I think you have a good heart. If you force me to think, I | |
| might learn something new. If you go over my head, so what? I | |
| don't have to understand everything to have faith in you as a | |
| friend. | |
| What you said about some people needing (or being happiest with) | |
| a low-skill job makes sense. I think it sucks that so many | |
| honest jobs have been exported. [/quote] | |
| Add to that the federal program that tries to seduce bright | |
| people from other countries to immigrate here by an easy visa | |
| system. Then there is the problem of the bright people wanting | |
| to stay here if educated here. There is a brain drain from | |
| some countries since people who are bright and educated in | |
| richer countries don't see much opportunity i if they return to | |
| their own countries. I know a guy from Egypt whose sister was | |
| a doctor. If she worked in Egypt, she could hardly make a | |
| living. It didn't make sense for her to live there when she | |
| could work somewhere else. | |
| We see how Obama's uncle chose not to return to Kenya. He | |
| preferred to work here even though his visa was expired and he | |
| had to work at convenience -- after receiving a first rate | |
| university education. If he had returned to Kenya, maybe he | |
| would have had a more prestigious job, but what would it have | |
| paid? | |
| [quote]Not many people know how to listen. It's become a thing | |
| with me. A trigger. My dad calls and wants to bark at me, | |
| expects me to hear him, but he tunes out when I try to talk to | |
| him. Doctors just want you to listen to them and agree so they | |
| can move on to the next patient, the next 15 minute appointment. | |
| When you hire someone to work for you, they don't even want to | |
| listen to your legitimate concerns. The whole world is in a mad | |
| rush, and listening takes time that no one is willing to give. | |
| Everyone is distracted and multi-tasking. I'm starting to get | |
| really impatient about people not listening to me. I wrote my | |
| dad and told him to not call me anymore, but to go back to | |
| writing letters-- and he thus far has ignored my letter. I | |
| don't want to deal with doctors at all. I dread needing to hire | |
| anyone to do anything.[/quote]When you see this happening, you | |
| can be fairly sure they want to live in their own little worlds | |
| -- they don't want to face reality. They believe it's easier | |
| to make up their minds about everything without getting the | |
| facts or any input from others. This is willful ignorance and | |
| self-imposed stupidity. Feel sorry for such people. They are | |
| not happy and never will be. They're apt to do the craziest | |
| things; and the more they shut reality out, the crazier they | |
| become. | |
| You probably heard about the policeman just indicted for murder | |
| in Ohio. True, it wasn't very wise for the black driver to say | |
| he didn't do anything wrong and decide to drive off. It hadn't | |
| been very wise for him to be driving without a license plate on | |
| the front of his car -- he said he had it inside the car. | |
| Stupid to be driving without a license -- and that is the reason | |
| he gave for not giving the officer his license. I can only | |
| think he wanted to buy the bottle of gin and thus took chances. | |
| At least the bottle of gin didn't look opened! | |
| But the officer was dumber yet when he took out his gun and shot | |
| the man in the head. What was he thinking of? He had a body | |
| camera on that captured it all; but he still lied about it, and | |
| another policeman also went along with the lie. Did they lie | |
| deliberately or did their minds make them see what they wanted | |
| to see? | |
| Then the victim's mother weighed in. She said her son did | |
| absolutely nothing wrong. This too was a stupid statement; and | |
| I think we can see she's living in her own fantasy world about | |
| her son and probably has been for years. It's also safe to | |
| think if she had been more alert, perhaps she could have | |
| prevented the tragedy by teaching better when he was young. I | |
| know of cases where blacks were accused when they did absolutely | |
| nothing wrong, and one case where a completely innocent woman | |
| was shot. They do exist; and most black parents tell their | |
| children to be cautious. So what if a "bad cop" pulls you over | |
| for a bad reason? Why inflame him and put your life at risk? | |
| I think that's what responsible black parents do if they are | |
| intelligent and truly caring. | |
| I don't buy into the theory that people retreat into fantasyland | |
| because of what others have done to them. I think they talk | |
| about excuses a lot -- things that excuse their own bad | |
| behavior. They retreat into lala-land out of guilt; and if they | |
| have to invent stuff to justify their own bad behavior and | |
| attitudes, so be it. | |
| About your father, if my memory is right, I have to wonder why | |
| he stood by and did so little about how your mother treated you. | |
| If my memory is right, I think he was willing to tune all that | |
| out, and he may even have felt more loved by you if you were | |
| felt separated from your mother. I could be wrong; but wonder | |
| about such dynamics. It's a horrible thing to say but I wonder | |
| if he was glad about it, perhaps even secretly encouraged it. I | |
| wonder too if he "sympathized" with your mother when alone with | |
| her about how bad you were. I wasn't there, so I can't say I | |
| know; but there are people like that. If he felt guilty about | |
| it, perhaps he found it useful to shut out what others say. | |
| I'm not saying bad things never happen to good people; but | |
| people with guilty consciences often bring down trouble on | |
| themselves and the people around them. Confusion and chaos | |
| reign, and no one knows what's going on. | |
| [quote]Sorry. Off topic. I'm honestly not very well-versed in | |
| politics. But I do know that intelligence has little to do with | |
| how 'good' a person is. There are so many factors that make | |
| each of us who we are. Who can sort it all out? | |
| [/quote]Studying politics is one way of learning about the | |
| "serpent" mind. Be gentle as the dove, Jesus said, but he also | |
| said to be wise as the serpent. I almost always smile when I | |
| read that Jesus called Herod a fox. There is no malevolence in | |
| the statement -- just the truth. And if you don't want to be | |
| a victim of the fox, you have to outfox him. | |
| Perhaps a thread about the politics in the book of Matthew would | |
| be in order. Jesus appears to be putting steady pressure on | |
| the Jewish and Roman leaders if you read it from the political | |
| angle. | |
| On the other matter, there actually is but a tiny difference | |
| between a mentally handicapped person and a genius when you look | |
| at intelligence from the broad perspective --very tiny -- but we | |
| humans put a huge emphasis on the tiniest differences. Most | |
| people are intelligent enough to function in society and | |
| function well too. | |
| Emotional state may be a bigger factor than innate intelligence. | |
| The lower someone sinks emotionally, the more irrational they | |
| become. It's almost impossible to get someone who's angry to | |
| tell the truth even if they know it. They're too bent on trying | |
| to say something injurious. Someone who's chronically | |
| depressed is not willing to see anything that might break him | |
| out of his depression. He will seek out details in society | |
| that justify his own depression. That is one reason old people | |
| often love newspapers. They are full of alarming stories, and | |
| the world appears far worse than it is since so few stories are | |
| upbeat or about positive things. These old people are | |
| hunkering down in their homes, afraid to leave or even come out | |
| except to pick up the paper. And the news stories tell them, | |
| "You're right to wall yourself up." | |
| I think emotions do affect intelligence. Almost any kind of | |
| stress can since it affects people. Even women's menstrual | |
| cycles affect their scores on IQ tests. "Visual reaction time" | |
| is also affected -- the ability to spot objects and respond to | |
| them. But women do better at the Stroop test then -- where | |
| you name the color you see while the word says something else. | |
| It's harder than you think, at least it is for me. If you want | |
| to give it a go, here's a link. | |
| https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/ready.html | |
| #Post#: 2723-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: IQ and the Economics of Nations | |
| By: Piper Date: July 30, 2015, 3:27 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [font=trebuchet ms]^That was fun. I found quickly that I had to | |
| block out the word and focus only on the color of the first | |
| letter. Still, it was an effort to see only what I wanted to | |
| see.[/font] | |
| #Post#: 2724-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: IQ and the Economics of Nations | |
| By: Piper Date: July 30, 2015, 4:06 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [font=trebuchet ms]As for my parents, I've given up figuring | |
| them out. My mom was raised in an orphanage after her father | |
| died and her mother couldn't afford to keep the kids at home. | |
| My dad's father was a railroader and my dad has nothing good to | |
| say about his father or his brothers. (He used to warn me to | |
| never marry a railroad man. Ha. Isn't it funny that I did just | |
| that? He never told me why, so I never took it seriously. | |
| Kevin and I seemed destined to meet, he loved trains, and my | |
| uncle helped get him on the railroad when he was just 18 years | |
| old. Railroading can be very hard on family life. Kevin worked | |
| hard to make time for family, but it sounds like my dad's father | |
| worked hard to make time for fishing--by himself.) My father | |
| seemed to care for his mother and sister, though. He was the | |
| youngest of the four children. Both my parents have always been | |
| very private, and I don't know many details about their | |
| childhoods. I tell myself now that they didn't have very good | |
| role models and they hopefully did the best they could. Does no | |
| good to agonize over the past. God, perhaps, understands, but I | |
| never will. People are incredibly complex. For years I have | |
| just tried to love them, but . . . they don't always make it | |
| easy. I try to focus on the good memories, and forget the ugly | |
| stuff. At least the nightmares never bother me anymore. I | |
| think they love me; it's just very awkward. And they're so old | |
| now . . . | |
| [/font] | |
| #Post#: 2725-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: IQ and the Economics of Nations | |
| By: CatholicCrusader Date: July 31, 2015, 9:12 am | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [quote]Many people today believe "all men are created | |
| equal".........[/quote] | |
| In context, that is meant to say that all are equal in the site | |
| of God. He loves all the same. | |
| Also, in America, it means all are equal under the law. | |
| But obviously, all are not equal in IQ, or strength, or talents, | |
| etc. | |
| #Post#: 2727-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: IQ and the Economics of Nations | |
| By: Piper Date: July 31, 2015, 11:20 am | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [quote] . . . all are equal in the site of God.[/quote] | |
| God has a site?! | |
| Oh man, do you have the web address? That is one site I wanna | |
| join! | |
| (Sorry. I couldn't resist. :P Wouldn't THAT be awesome.) | |
| #Post#: 2728-------------------------------------------------- | |
| Re: IQ and the Economics of Nations | |
| By: CatholicCrusader Date: July 31, 2015, 2:24 pm | |
| --------------------------------------------------------- | |
| [quote author=Piper link=topic=312.msg2727#msg2727 | |
| date=1438359609] | |
| God has a site?! | |
| Oh man, do you have the web address? That is one site I wanna | |
| join! | |
| (Sorry. I couldn't resist. :P Wouldn't THAT be awesome.) | |
| [/quote] | |
| Now we're even, after your "RICA". :P | |
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