Newsgroups: rec.org.mensa
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 22:51:28 -0400 
From: "Stephen P. Marting" <sm6h+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: T: To All MENSA Members...

Excerpts from rec.org.mensa: 23-Jul-92 T: To All MENSA Members... by
"Scott Andrew Tai"@ailab.ncsu.edu 
> 1) You're not more intelligent, you simply scored higher on a test
>    whose validity is questionable.

Please tell me where I, as a Mensa member, claimed to be more
intelligent than anyone else.

Please tell me where I, as a Mensa member, claimed that IQ tests (or
SAT's, in my case) have any validity beyond what they test for.

> 2) Intelligence has many aspects.  MENSA is not an organization for the
>    top fiftieth of the most intelligent people in the world.  It is an
>    organization for people who a) THINK they are in that category (and
>    what that says about those individuals is not, in my view,
>    complimentary), and b) who have a particular style of intelligence
>    suited to IQ tests.  People whose intelligence is expressed in other
>    ways that the ability to pass tests need not apply -- even if
>    accepted, the mindset of MENSA members is that of people who find the
>    passing of tests to be important and valuable.

Please tell me where I, as a Mensa member, claimed that I am one of the
top fiftieth in ANYTHING besides SAT scores.

Please tell me where I, as a Mensa member, claimed that the passing of
tests is in any way important or valuable.

> 3) White supremacists claim superiority based on the questionable
>    critera of skin melanin content and regional and national heritage.  
>    It is no less dehumanizing, invalid, and wrong in my view to attempt 
>    to discriminate based on the even less tangible criterion of "IQ".

So you're saying then that every organization should be open to
everyone?  Since Mensa "discriminated" against others when they accepted
me because of my SAT scores, then other organizations, say NCSU,
shouldn't "discriminate" by using SAT scores?

> MENSA is simply one more dangerous way in which one group of people
> attempt to set themselves apart -- and by 'apart' one invariably finds
> 'superior', since few people desire to join an organization which
> claims its members are 'inferior' -- from the rest of the populace.  Of
> such "harmless" little groups are born the divisive philosophies which
> feed nationalism, racism, and separate us from each other.

Please tell me where I, as a Mensa member, "attempt to set [myself] apart."

Please tell me where I, as a Mensa member, claim to be superior to anyone.

> If you're so damn smart you ought to see that.

I'm damn smart enough to see that creativity is not one of the strong
points of EITHER of us.

By the way, "Scott", your fake names are getting cuter.  Or did you use
"SAT" before and I missed it?

I'd have emailed you, but I heard it didn't work.  :)

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