From: kumar@ug.cs.dal.ca (kumar yelubandi)
Subject: Re: Jealousy (from the pages of omni....)
Organization: Math, Stats & CS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1993 20:37:34 GMT

>From: mike_steiner@qm.claris.com (Mike Steiner)
>In article <C19z27.Dnv@cs.dal.ca>, kumar@ug.cs.dal.ca (kumar yelubandi)
>wrote:
>> 	If the charter of MENSA is not an attempt to find a 
>> 	subset in the universal set of human beings, then what 
>> 	is it?  Am I dehumanizing them or are they dehumanizing
>> 	me by insisting I pass some artifically-determined 
>> 	criteria for membership? 

>Do you consider a high-school diploma or an academic degree dehumanizing? 

	Yes...in the present form, they are.  What are you saying?
	A piece of paper measures successful education?  Oops, I 
	forgot...an Oscar measures successful theatre, right?

	Schools and Universities should be places of learning, not 
	battlefields.  Teachers should be Socratesi, not executors 
	of military plans.  Students should be Platos, not soldiers, 
	not bored prisoners of war.	
	
	IMHO, most contemporary ills can be traced to the failure of
	the education system to educate.  Children and young adults 
	are taught to iterate the status quo, NOT to think and/or 
	create.  The more efficient iterations are judged to be of 
	sufficient merit, and are rewarded by latin inscriptions 
	and/or pyrite-plated platitudes PLUS a voucher for the good 
	life.  The less efficient iterations are frowned upon and 
	hastened to the proverbial door which locks from inside. 
	I ask you...how would it feel if you were excluded from
	a group based on some very subjective criteria.


>Do you consider passing the Bar exam or medical-licening exams
>dehumanizing?  

	No...I don't.	The institutions of medicine and law
	are held in public trust and as such, should require
	much more than casual scrutiny.	  But you're not saying that
	admission to the practice of law based on an exam structured 
	around legal competence;  or admission to the practice of
	medicine based on an exam structured around medical 
	competence; is the same as admitting to MENSA based on
	an exam which, at best, measures imagined competence...are you?		


>Do you consider being a Life Master of the American Contract
>Bridge League dehumanizing?  How about being a grand master at chess? 
>These are all "artificially-determined criteria" for membership and/or
>certification.
 
	No...not at all.  Bridge and chess can be quantified
	accurately...sort of like the 100m sprints.  There is 
	nothing artificial about Garry Kasparov's 2800+ FIDE
	rating (for those of you that follow chess)...it is
	determined by a mathematical expression, ie. a function 
	of wins and losses.  There is nothing artificial about 
	winning and losing in direct competition.

>[stuff deleted for brevity...I know, it's too late now, but hey....]
>
>upper-bounded by the intelligence of their highest-scoring member.  If
>Mensans were so upper bounded, that would mean that no one with a higher
>score would be eligible for membership.  This is patently false.


	This is patently nonsense.  Read it over and thank me for
	not shredding it to pieces.




	Kumar

ps:	...again...I apologize if I appear to be smug...it's just 
	that it is so hard to contain oneself when people who 
	think so highly of themselves as to join MENSA, fail
	to recognize the hollowness of such an accomplishment.
	(Or choose to set apart from 98% of the human race)
-- 
                                ********************************************
   Kumar Yelubandi               **  A wise man learns more from a fool  **
   (good wines = good times!)    **  than vice versa...or so they say    **
   ...in the year 2525...        **           -  Drink up -              ** 
Newsgroups: rec.org.mensa