Pass the Salt Shaker...

So Tristan's been writing a lot lately about TV shows, and here's one I happened to catch. I guess it's sweeps week, so CBC held the very gimmicky and much-hyped Test the Nation, a national IQ test, on Sunday night. I was actually quite surprised that an institution as notoriously liberal as the CBC would broadcast such a thing, because the whole notion of IQ, IMO, goes against the liberal grain - (A) because IQ is a measure that's largely fixed, with a large genetic component (and liberals like to believe that everything is a function of environment), and (B) Because it's a measure with huge predictive powers in determining life outcomes - the mean IQ is 100, 50% of the population lies within the 90-110 range, and a 40 point IQ spread can separate a statistician from a bus driver.

IQ tests were developed by psychometricians to measure innate intellectual aptitude, to place an empirical scientific stamp and a quantification of the measure of intelligence. IQ tests suggest that intelligence is largely fixed; IQ scores don't vary much with age, and they don't vary by schooling. Unlike the MCAT or LSAT, it's something that cannot be taught or learned - and herein lies the danger: it's biological determinism.

Although people don't like to acknowledge that they may be innately "less intelligent" because they score lower on an IQ test, there is a shared implicit understanding some people simply are smarter than other people for whatever reason - that there are people that can pick up abstract concepts really quickly, that can recognize patterns and see connections, and then there are others to whom all of these things will go over their head.

But herein lies the danger. Our society stresses that it's not what you are born with, that it's what you make of your talents that matters. We're indoctrinated (maybe deluded) into believing if one tries hard enough, one can achieve anything. To suggest that certain people are predestined not to "make it" - to be shut out of certain fields and high-earning professions simply because they don't have the right genetic makeup - is antithetical to the egalitarian ideal on which the Canadian social fabric is predicated. And since intelligence is IMO the most important variable in modern society - being the single greatest determinant of one's life outcomes - this has large, perhaps horrific implications.

I think it's best if people didn't know their IQ scores - or better yet, didn't care. The last thing we want are people walking around feeling more worthy simply for lucking out on the genetic lottery - it's about achievement! And worse are the people who have been tagged 'dumb' and who know it; many already have an implicit view that they're doomed to failure, and a low IQ score gives them scientific validation to a variable which heretoforth was very loosely defined. There's the danger that these people will simply give up. And it's better for all people to buy into this egalitarian ideal (or delusion) and keep trying, because it's altogether healthier for society. The last thing we want is a permanent underclass disinvested from the mainstream, who know they're dumb and acknowledge it and hold a fatalist fuck it, I'm too stoopid mentality. Like here (scroll to 1:00). Better that they be deluded into believing they're just as smart as that math prof, and that they just didn't apply themselves in school.

IQ should be taken with a grain of salt. Maybe I'm a bit brighter than the average bloke, but I only got here because I did my homework once in a while. And heck, there may even be one or two students in the math faculty with IQs below the mean, but who are getting by on account of their work ethic. Basically my point is you can pat yourself on the back all you want for having a high IQ score, but if you're a lazy fuck, you're not getting anywhere.