I think their entry requirements are doing exactly what they’re supposed to.
The problem is that intelligence, even if we could measure it correctly, doesn’t and shouldn’t imply what a person knows, nor their experiences and the wisdom that they carry.
Someone can be learned with a low IQ. Someone can be wise and similarly low IQ. In the same way, someone with a high IQ can be unwise.
The problem with having only one individual metric for a group which believes themselves to compose the smartest people, is that they’re arrogant. I know plenty of people who are so extremely intelligent that I am certain that they could be a part of Mensa; yet, they are not. When they looked into it, they decided it would be unwise to become a member, given the requirements and the attitudes of, and about, the group.
Hell, there’s a decent chance I could get in. I’ve never tried and I don’t care to, for all the same reasons, so I would never know if I could “make it” or not.
Mensa is for people who grew up in gifted programs being told that they will achieve greatness just because of the one test they scored hight on, and then they amounted to nothing, so they need a place where they can tell each other that they are unsuccessful only because they are so much smarter than everyone else around them.
High IQ people who manage to do something with their life usually have more to be proud of than an IQ test they took decades ago.
I think their entry requirements are doing exactly what they’re supposed to.
The problem is that intelligence, even if we could measure it correctly, doesn’t and shouldn’t imply what a person knows, nor their experiences and the wisdom that they carry.
Someone can be learned with a low IQ. Someone can be wise and similarly low IQ. In the same way, someone with a high IQ can be unwise.
The problem with having only one individual metric for a group which believes themselves to compose the smartest people, is that they’re arrogant. I know plenty of people who are so extremely intelligent that I am certain that they could be a part of Mensa; yet, they are not. When they looked into it, they decided it would be unwise to become a member, given the requirements and the attitudes of, and about, the group.
Hell, there’s a decent chance I could get in. I’ve never tried and I don’t care to, for all the same reasons, so I would never know if I could “make it” or not.
Their arrogance and hubris is their undoing.
Mensa is for people who grew up in gifted programs being told that they will achieve greatness just because of the one test they scored hight on, and then they amounted to nothing, so they need a place where they can tell each other that they are unsuccessful only because they are so much smarter than everyone else around them.
High IQ people who manage to do something with their life usually have more to be proud of than an IQ test they took decades ago.