Quote Originally Posted by Purple Banana
overgrow- While I appreciate your eloquence in addressing the subject of the decline of human intelligence, I think you're making way too many generalizations, based on buzz language by media outlets, open and unfounded statements, and just being vague in general. To the contrary, I don't believe human intelligence is on the decline; simply basing your argument off reality television, government propaganda, and completely unfounded statistics (conspicuous consumption? 90% That's hardly statistically measurable) and assuming most of the youth/young adult population follow what their parents have followed.

From personal observation, your logic is unsound... With each passing generation, scientific and technological discovery is exploding at an exponential rate; more kids are attending colleges- I know college does not necessarily make one smart, but the actively pursuing education is definitely a good indicator. I understand this is just a single example, but when I went to high school, the token "nerds" didn't just earn good grades, but many people in the more popular crowd actually did better on exams. Vast majority of the cliquish girls not only made it through college very well, but are attending pharm school, law school, med school... Many of the bitter and inherently intelligent people from high school are living in crappy apartments, working two jobs, trudging their way through life filled with misplaced resentment. They should be the ones in college, but they spent more energy on cynicism than studying.

You can't determine someone's intelligence by their social behavior, what they watch on TV, what their consumption habits are... It's backwards thinking. What really confused me was your phrase:



I'm not sure what you mean by this... By status symbols, do you imply fast cars, boats, nice houses? If so, then the 90% figure and the term addiction would render it a kind of moot point... If 90% of people purchase things which incite their status, then the term status symbol would become invalid. What is inherently wrong with buying quality if you indeed have worked hard enough for the money?

My mom worked 16 hour shifts as a nurse opposite of my dad, who worked 12 hour shifts as a coal powerplant operator to raise all six of us into healthy, functioning, and intelligent adults. Through these times, my parents learned a hell of a lot about savings and financial methods, so we've always had a comfortable home and the occasional vacation. My mom also pursued education like a fiend while working full time, accumulating four Masters and two bachelors degrees. She also watches Survivor and American Idol. My parents have 100% absolutely perfect credit. Based on your above presumption, is it morally wrong for my mom to own a Miata, or my dad to own a boat?

As far as your suggested trend in IQ, bhouncy, it wouldn't surprise me. However, traditional IQ tests, much like SATs/ACTs are generally falling out of favor in the sense that the tests are too objective, and don't show the actual spectrum of intelligence; Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences has come into favor the past decade, as it determines and measures what KIND of intelligence you predominately posses.

I'm assuming these are all personal, local observations? How can you determine another person's general knowledge and aesthetic appreciation objectively? You can't. Simply because you don't observe people going to art shows, museums, lectures, etc. doesn't mean they have a lack of "general knowledge and aesthetic appreciation," both of which are extremely vague terms.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again. GRAMMAR. DOES. NOT. INDICATE. INTELLIGENCE. As a former English major, as well as someone who appreciates grammar, syntax, punctuation, etc. I can attest that lack of grammar, especially on the internet, does NOT determine the intelligence of the person. There are scads of people on this site, as well as people I talk with on AIM who don't use punctuation, capital letters, and (gasp!) end their sentences with prepositions. That does NOT make them less intelligent in any way, shape, or form.

I guess the point I'm trying to convey is that you can't make accurate broad generalizations about society. People can have advanced degrees and still be idiots, or they can be intelligent, thoughtful, and eat McDonald's and shop at Wal Mart. Humans are, like it or not, each highly individual beings that you cannot accurately judge without knowing more subjective material. Preconceived notions about a person usually turn out to be false- I've had it happen to me often, and it will continue to happen. People surprise me all the time.
A few things I must say here:

1. Yes, we have new technological breakthroughs all the time, but I'm talking about a deeper understanding here, not the creation of higher-tech gizmos for people to shallowly distract themselves with, new means of accelerating the dehumanizing industrialism we've engaged in since the 1700s, or some bigger bomb. Most breakthroughs seem to consist of one of the above...that or better medicine, to fuel the overpopulation epidemic.

2. It is a common belief in our modern society that we cannot judge another person's intelligence, but I'm acquainted with a great many people who don't know words like "stifled" or "tyranny", are practically illiterate despite being educated for thirteen years, and who really don't know anything outside of their own tiny sphere of vacuity. University wasn't much better--nobody loved knowledge for its own sake, and they were all just after a degree for financial reasons.

3. As for aesthetic appreciation...I find it astonishing that some people could watch a sunrise, listen to a beautiful piece of music, read a poem by Keats, etc. and feel absolutely nothing. Yeah, I know beauty's in the eye of the beholder, but some eyes are more refined than others. I'm simply not going to buy into our age's egalitarian bullshit...genius and quality are in danger of vanishing from recognition in our era of blind subjectivity-lauding.

4. I know whether or not someone chooses to use perfect grammar on a forum doesn't indiciate intellect, but if someone has to, on an essay for example, and proves to be utterly ignorant of the structure of the language they've been speaking since birth?

5. Good point about the infinite variance of the individual...that I will acknowledge. I'm not negating human worth here or the individual capacity to transcend in a number of ways, I'm just saying that I wish more people were more intellectual, that poetry was more widely-read, that values were examined more, that arty films were more popular than American Idol, etc.