As a child (ages 5 thru 7 or so) I scored what would be the equivalent of a 174 IQ, or a rarity of 1 in half a million. After many years of public school indoctrination and church brainwashing throughout my childhood and adolescence followed by the resurgence of rewriting my thinking and reclaiming my own brain again in my 20s, I have scored anywhere from 145 to 159. I have found the more frequently I take these tests, the higher I score. I did not bother to continue taking them after scoring 159 as I assumed my IQ "potential" was really well into the 160s, if not 170s. So what does this mean?
Like someone else has said before me, intelligence is likened to the brain as strength is to the muscles. You can alter your range of facility by a variety of conditional changes, be it sleep, exercise, and eating habits, or by factors such as stress, stimulation, and traumatic events. But I do believe in a sort of range that one settles in. Like muscular genetics, we all have our own mental limits. For example, one who scores 100 on an IQ test might score an 89 when conditions are difficult and a 107 when life is great. This is why I suppose one should take tests a few times and find the average. But this same person will not be able to score a 150 when he is nowhere near that level. Not even on the best of the best days. He just does not have that mental capacity.
Back to me. Assume my IQ is 160+, or even 174 as before my formative years of indoctrination took place. Life is a paradox for a genius. You find yourself constantly stuck in the tracks set by people in the 85 to 115 IQ range. You have answers to problems that will go on forever if you don't speak up or do something. But you find the system is set up against intellectuals like you. You are outnumbered half a million to one. If your answer is not as obvious to the next guy, you better have a house made of bricks to run to for daring to rock the boat. It seems as a genius, even a loving benevolent one, world problems become more of an issue of human evil and less of a lack of means. You do not see world hunger, war, rape, or theft as the way it has to be, but the way we "collectively" have chosen it to be. We could easily rid the world of disease, cure cancer, and everyone can live to 100 if we truly chose to. But human nature is one that is driven by 3 primary factors: fear, greed, and self-contentment. Allow me to explain.
Approximately 90% of the transitions of society's structure throughout all of human history are done through the use of government force, AKA tyranny. The activation of fear and punishment have been the methods to implement these tactics. So 9 out of 10 people respond more to the emotion of fear than any other factor. They are the cowards of the world who need to be scared into supporting an illegal war, taking a flu shot, or into serving a political figurehead/repressive government. Think medieval peasants, brainwashed Americans, citizens of communist China, or Soviet Russia. Or simply religious cults. They all act out of fear of punishment. That is what triggers their motion to do what they do. Think of the man and woman next door. Think Peter Keating.
The next motive of action is that of greed. These types start off responding to bribes and graduate into power-lust. They are those who want all the power, money, and control, and stop at nothing to enact the kind of change that most benefits them. They seek to dominate the will of subservient sheep to gain high positions of authority and to use such positions to play God. These people account for about 8%. Think dictators, Kings, Pharaohs, Illuminati, and these days, even U.S. presidents to a degree. These people believe you can either rule or be ruled and choose to be the rulers. Think Gail Wynand.
The last and most noble of the three types is the self-contented man. I'll be generous and say this person makes up 2% of society, but it may very well be less than 1%. This man believes in equal liberty for all under the law and self-responsibility. They are willing to tolerate ignorance and stupidity so long as reason is free to combat it. They do not need to be bribed to do something right or threatened to not do something wrong. They act out of clear conscience and ethics, not out of fear or greed. In short, their integrity is not for sale. Think of creators, thinkers, movers, and shakers. Think innovators, inventors, and pioneers. Think Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Howard Hughes, Nikola Tesla. Think Howard Roark.
So where am I getting to with this? If you are the fearful type, you are easily ruled. Society is designed to put you in your place and keep you safe and silent. If you are the greedy type, society has a place for you too ruling the fearful and manipulating them into serving your power. But if you are an intellectual without negative motive, otherwise known as a self-contented man, where do you fit? You refuse to be a servant so you are punished. You refuse to be a warlord so you are never respected or listened to. Instead you are just there, observing the world and wondering where and when you will find your place in it. This is not because you are not great at many things, that society has no use for you, or even that you don't want to engage, but that the societal structures that were designed by the average human being of master and servant do not normally permit you to shine within them. This is why stories like "The Fountainhead" are such an inspiration for the intellectual self-contented man. If you can conceive of the possibility to succeed in such a repressive world, the reality exists somewhere in the abstract. We just have to forge our way there by appealing to the reasoning mind and hope for the best.
This is what it is like to have an IQ in the 160s or 170s and I'd imagine not much different for any person whose IQ is higher. We keep looking from the outside-in trying to find our place in this backwards world that insists on remaining stagnant and repressed, even as we are standing there with our arms stretched out, giving freely the gift of our intellect and deepest passions.
Like someone else has said before me, intelligence is likened to the brain as strength is to the muscles. You can alter your range of facility by a variety of conditional changes, be it sleep, exercise, and eating habits, or by factors such as stress, stimulation, and traumatic events. But I do believe in a sort of range that one settles in. Like muscular genetics, we all have our own mental limits. For example, one who scores 100 on an IQ test might score an 89 when conditions are difficult and a 107 when life is great. This is why I suppose one should take tests a few times and find the average. But this same person will not be able to score a 150 when he is nowhere near that level. Not even on the best of the best days. He just does not have that mental capacity.
Back to me. Assume my IQ is 160+, or even 174 as before my formative years of indoctrination took place. Life is a paradox for a genius. You find yourself constantly stuck in the tracks set by people in the 85 to 115 IQ range. You have answers to problems that will go on forever if you don't speak up or do something. But you find the system is set up against intellectuals like you. You are outnumbered half a million to one. If your answer is not as obvious to the next guy, you better have a house made of bricks to run to for daring to rock the boat. It seems as a genius, even a loving benevolent one, world problems become more of an issue of human evil and less of a lack of means. You do not see world hunger, war, rape, or theft as the way it has to be, but the way we "collectively" have chosen it to be. We could easily rid the world of disease, cure cancer, and everyone can live to 100 if we truly chose to. But human nature is one that is driven by 3 primary factors: fear, greed, and self-contentment. Allow me to explain.
Approximately 90% of the transitions of society's structure throughout all of human history are done through the use of government force, AKA tyranny. The activation of fear and punishment have been the methods to implement these tactics. So 9 out of 10 people respond more to the emotion of fear than any other factor. They are the cowards of the world who need to be scared into supporting an illegal war, taking a flu shot, or into serving a political figurehead/repressive government. Think medieval peasants, brainwashed Americans, citizens of communist China, or Soviet Russia. Or simply religious cults. They all act out of fear of punishment. That is what triggers their motion to do what they do. Think of the man and woman next door. Think Peter Keating.
The next motive of action is that of greed. These types start off responding to bribes and graduate into power-lust. They are those who want all the power, money, and control, and stop at nothing to enact the kind of change that most benefits them. They seek to dominate the will of subservient sheep to gain high positions of authority and to use such positions to play God. These people account for about 8%. Think dictators, Kings, Pharaohs, Illuminati, and these days, even U.S. presidents to a degree. These people believe you can either rule or be ruled and choose to be the rulers. Think Gail Wynand.
The last and most noble of the three types is the self-contented man. I'll be generous and say this person makes up 2% of society, but it may very well be less than 1%. This man believes in equal liberty for all under the law and self-responsibility. They are willing to tolerate ignorance and stupidity so long as reason is free to combat it. They do not need to be bribed to do something right or threatened to not do something wrong. They act out of clear conscience and ethics, not out of fear or greed. In short, their integrity is not for sale. Think of creators, thinkers, movers, and shakers. Think innovators, inventors, and pioneers. Think Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, Howard Hughes, Nikola Tesla. Think Howard Roark.
So where am I getting to with this? If you are the fearful type, you are easily ruled. Society is designed to put you in your place and keep you safe and silent. If you are the greedy type, society has a place for you too ruling the fearful and manipulating them into serving your power. But if you are an intellectual without negative motive, otherwise known as a self-contented man, where do you fit? You refuse to be a servant so you are punished. You refuse to be a warlord so you are never respected or listened to. Instead you are just there, observing the world and wondering where and when you will find your place in it. This is not because you are not great at many things, that society has no use for you, or even that you don't want to engage, but that the societal structures that were designed by the average human being of master and servant do not normally permit you to shine within them. This is why stories like "The Fountainhead" are such an inspiration for the intellectual self-contented man. If you can conceive of the possibility to succeed in such a repressive world, the reality exists somewhere in the abstract. We just have to forge our way there by appealing to the reasoning mind and hope for the best.
This is what it is like to have an IQ in the 160s or 170s and I'd imagine not much different for any person whose IQ is higher. We keep looking from the outside-in trying to find our place in this backwards world that insists on remaining stagnant and repressed, even as we are standing there with our arms stretched out, giving freely the gift of our intellect and deepest passions.
