Isaac Asimov was inducted as, like, a vice president of MENSA, or some similar position, and he wrote an article about how intelligence doesn't matter, at least no more than any other sort of talent matters. People tend to think what they're best at is what it's best to be best at. So smart people think intelligence is important - especially the ability to learn and recite trivia of history, culture, or science. Athletic people think that being healthy and strong is important, . . . but due to the way our culture has changed lately, they also think that being smart is very important.
There's nothing clear about being smart. Even the definition of smart changes. Who here is fluent in Latin and Greek? If you're not, then obviously you're not smart, by the 1800s academia's definition. Can you recite the Bible chapter and verse? No? Well, be glad you don't live in the renaissance or middle ages, you ignorant sow.
For some reason, today we value hard sciences as being the most intellectual. Physics professors are smarter than biology professors are smarter than psychology professors are smarter than literature professors are smarter than art professors are smarter than coaches. Nothing inherently says this is so, but our culture believes it, so it's true.
So what if you have an IQ of 140, or 160? A few times in the past few decades, this or that researcher wanted to conduct blind studies on different races and how they score on IQ tests, with all in all what sounds like a racist agenda. They want to prove that certain races are more or less intelligent than others, of course assuming that their own race (probably white) would score highest.
Now first, this sort of testing proves nothing except that certain groups in society are better able to score well on tests designed a certain way. Like the point made earlier, being familiar with the type of test helps you score well. Likewise, if you've been raised in a certain style of educational culture, you'll score well on tests designed by people who had that same style of education. All IQ tests really determine is how good you are at thinking the way that the IQ testers want you to think.
Second, and more importantly, even if the test results did show that certain groups are smarter than others, do you think we'd actually listen to the results and decide to give tax breaks to the appropriate race, or have federally-mandated pay increases?
Consider this: What if we ran these tests, and discovered that people from New Zealand scored higher on average than any other group? Not that unlikely, if you took an accurate sample of each ethnic group's population, since I'd imagine most New Zealander immigrants would not move to rural areas with limited educational systems.
If we got back that test result, do you think we'd suddenly admit, "Oh yeah, it's been scientifically proven. Go ahead and pay New Zealanders more." Pretty unlikely. And if we found out that, say, people from South Africa scored higher, or that the best-scoring group was half-Indian, half-Portuguese women who live in Wisconsin, there's no way the scientific community would recognize any value in the results.
So, if we don't care that a particular race or ethnic group scores higher on IQ tests, why does it matter then if a given person scores higher? So you're good at passing a test. Are you good at helping your fellow man? Are you good at singing, acting, and entertaining others? Are you good at sleeping with lots of partners to have good offspring? Are you good at cheating on your d20 rolls when the DM ain't looking? There aren't tests for those (or if there are, I'm a little frightened).
Sure, it's nice to be proud of being smart. I like being smart, at least in my own opinion, and I value learning to be smarter. But not everyone has the same values, or measures things the same way, or even gives a damn, so be careful evaluating yourself and others on the basis of any sort of score.
By the way, my college has gone completely undefeated in football for over 100 years. Normally, for college football that'd be so incredibly good as to be unbelievable. But my college hasn't had a football team for over 100 years.
*wink*
