Intelligence and Happiness
Controversial comments of geneticist James Watson, in his Sunday Times interview that black people are inherently less intelligent than whites, should come as no surprise. Not long ago, similar findings were published by Richard Lynn, Tatu Vanhanen - two professors emeritus, one Irish (psychology), one Finnish (political science).
A table of the average IQ scores of different countries, drawn from studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals shows that the national average IQs range from 107 for Hong Kong to 59 for Equatorial Guinea. Lynn and Vanhanen benchmarked their IQ results so that Britain is 100. USA scores 98 on this scale, and the world average is 90. IQ's are assumed to form a normal probability distribution ("bell curve") with the standard deviation set at 15.
It is however, acknowledged that in many Third World countries there are communities having exceptionally high IQ and in the Western world there are communities having considerably lower IQ than the average for the Third world. In all countries people with IQ higher than 100 or lower than 90 are found but their percentages among the nations and races vary widely. It is opined that some combination of malnutrition, disease, inbreeding, lack of education, lack of mental stimulation, lack of familiarity with abstract reasoning and so forth can keep people from reaching their genetic potential for IQ. Lynn himself did early studies demonstrating that malnutrition drives down IQ
Geneticist James Watson is known for pushing the dark pseudo-science of eugenics and he sounded pessimistic when he told the interviewer that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really".
Watson maintains the notion that everyone is created equal is flawed because "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true" He does not seem to subscribe to the notion that the real intelligence is in living as happily as possible. Many intelligent folks tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we have, but rather by recognizing and appreciating what we do have.
Growing incomes in western societies no longer make people happier, and more individualistic, competitive societies make many people positively unhappy. As Joseph Addison observed:
"Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love and something to hope for."
And Dale Carnegie said: "
"Remember happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think."
Happiness, freedom, and peace of mind are the three things that we crave most in our lives. There appears to be a wonderful mythical law of nature that these are attained by giving them to others! To achieve them we must believe in the equality of man; and we must believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving, mercy, and abstaining from ordinary dirtiness of politics, selfishness and greed. We must appreciate that equality, in a social sense, does not mean equality of condition or our equality of our enodowments but that of rights. Equality of civil rights is vital but equality of condition is incompatible with civilization and in practice, it can only mean a common misery.
Giving respect to the elders and showing affection to the children and understanding and good will to the younger would help us earn respect and admiration. There in appreciating these facts lies the real intelligence - the emotional intelligence.
Shah N. Khan
http://wwww.netvert.biz
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Guide to Happiness- Ideas of Brian Jensen
1) Religion seems to make people happy. A Readers Digest article says religion and family makes people happy along with enjoying work.
2) See life as an adventure. Sometimes an adventure involves pain but this is relished in memory. Don’t complain.
3) Don’t dwell on your misfortunes or times you have been wronged. Forgive others and yourself. Don’t expect sympathy or understanding or someone to say, “I’m sorry you were wronged.” It would be rare for you to get any sympathy.
4) Be satisfied with and grateful for simple pleasures, simple food, simple housing, simple clothes, a plain car, etc.
5) Don’t do anything that you would be ashamed to have everyone know about or that will make you feel bad about yourself.
6) Don’t worry about what others think about you. What they think is none of your business.
7) Don’t worry about intelligence. Don’t feel or even think about superiority or inferiority. People should only be judged by the rule “Dumb is as dumb does.”
8) Alcohol, nicotine, and other drugs are for losers.
9) Find humor where you can. Perhaps even laugh at a bad situation instead of complaining.
10) “To thine own self be true,” from Shakespeare. I’ve been trying to figure out for 40 years what that means. Anyway, be yourself, pursue your own goals, and don’t let anyone else tell you what to think. Their thinking may not be better even if they have you outnumbered.
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