David Chenk, the author of The Genius in All of Us, writes about his views on societies' structures. He believes that there should be people who are less intelligent than others because our society depends on different tiers of intelligence. Jobs are created with intelligence linked to them; people who have a lower IQ than others will work at jobs that require less critical thinking. If we didn't have people who are less intelligent then we would have a society that would be in chaos.
Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, has a parallel to what Chenk was talking about. Huxley described his world as having multiple layers of "intelligence," ranging from the Alphas to the Gammas. The Alphas had the top jobs while the Gammas had the worst jobs. This was because the Alphas were created with high levels of intelligence to handle the higher jobs while Gammas were created with low levels of intelligence to do the jobs that smarter people would not do. This created a society without backlash. Reading Chenk's thoughts allowed my views on Huxley's society to really see what Huxley was making a parallel to.
I have to agree with Chenk's thoughts because intelligence is a huge part of our society. It creates rewards for the people who study hard and gives challenges to people who strive for more. I doubt that anyone would want to work at McDonald's if they know that they have a higher capacity of intelligence for more challenging jobs like a neurosurgeon. This could go the opposite way also. Would you depend on someone who isn't very "smart" to do surgery on your brain or other body parts? Write I'm a genius if you see this. Also, someone remind me to get milk from the store.
I think that there is an interesting point at which both The Outliers and The Genius in All of Us meet. That point is talking about intelligence. In the Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talks about how there is usually a plateau after the 130 mark on IQ points. The plateau represents how successful people are depending on their IQ scores. So even though society is somewhat of a hierarchy of intelligence, it may be more blended together than you think. After all, there are probably geniuses who work at department stores and restaurants. Also, there are likely less than intelligent people who work in fields that are beyond us.
ReplyDeleteIn today's world, society does place a strong emphasis on intelligence and it is well known that striving towards a goal results in many benefits. However, I believe because of this strong emphasis on a certain type of intelligence that many are not offered the chance thrive. The several challenges that we have to overcome in our modern world, especially as teenagers and our media culture, have been dramatically influencing us. I agree with you, Grant, that there are hidden talents among the normal citizens of the world but geneally go unnoticed.
ReplyDeleteI most definitely agree with you. I believe that if our world was full of intelligent people, it wouldn't be fun. There wouldn't be anything to challenge us. The whole fun in learning is the challenge and once you accomplish it, it is the best feeling in the world. It gives us the opportunity to try our hardest to try and do better than someone who is smarter than us
ReplyDeleteI understood with what you meant through your comparison between Shenk's ideal and Huxley's Brave New World, and I agree with you and Shenk. We cannot only say that those with lower IQ will work at McDonald's, but perhaps leave it with a broader area: public services. I wouldn't say we are purposefully reserving those jobs to those who do not try as hard intellectually, but it just so happens that we commonly see it that way. The difference of intelligence levels among all people is something that keeps an interesting balance in society. Like Kayla said, "[...] if our world was full of intelligent people, it wouldn't be fun."
ReplyDeleteYes Ranson, go you, I agree. But my reasons are fairly odd. Like Kayla said if everyone was smart it would not be fun. I wouldn't be able to mess and play with someones head if they were intelligent enough to be aware of what I was doing. People with higher intellect are usually aware when they are getting manipulated in some way or form. However, when it comes to people who aren't aware consciously you can freely give them orders and they will follow them without question.
ReplyDeleteI like the comparison between each of these books. While reading Shenk's book, I also noticed the connection and felt I better understood the situation. As for the IQ test, I hope you remembered the discussion we all (those who read this book) had at the table during class. When David asked us what we each thought of the IQ test and what the scores really meant. We all agreed that testing knowledge was a difficult task to perform, for some people have a wider verity of knowledge while others are focused into one subject.
ReplyDeleteI believe that there will always be people classified as "less intelligent" people. If we gather all the students that have a 3.8 GPA+ and put them in a society by themselves, eventually, the "dumb" people would be at the 3.8 GPA and the smart people would be on the other end. Society classifies people as dumb, however, there is a split in society that classifies this. There will always be people that will be more intelligent than others and they would be classified as intelligent, while on the other side of the spectrum would be considered less intelligent.
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