Truth is a Victim but Victims aren't the Truth

Human intelligence supposedly hasn't changed in the past 50,000 years or more. Obviously, there are just as many morons today as there were when Aquinas or Plato or Moses or walked the earth, the difference being that today's morons are equipped with weapons like literacy and credentials, so are that much more dangerous. 

Man isn't just intelligence; rather, he is also will and sentiment, which is where the real trouble starts. Intelligence can only go so wrong without other non-cognitive factors coming into play.

For example, it seems that man has an in-built need for "distinction," or of being seen as special. Now, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with this. Indeed, it can be quite adaptive in a social context, so long as the distinction being sought is honorable and virtuous. 

For example, the founders were positively neurotic about being seen as disinterested and above reproach, and paranoid about their reputations. It's surprising that more of them didn't die in duels.

The point is, mere intelligence isn't nearly enough to ensure one's distinction. After all, half of the population possesses above average intelligence, so who wants to be lumped in with them? 

For intelligence to be sufficient to distinguish one from the herd, one would have to be at least two standard deviation above average, placing one in the top two percent. To be on the safe side, you might want to be three standard deviations above,  which puts you in the top .1%. 

Note that education has no effect on IQ: it will be as low or high as it is, the rest being puffery, ornamentation, and fraud, as in the Wizard of Oz: 

"Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity. Every pusillanimous creature that crawls the earth or slinks through the slimy seas has a brain.... 

"Back where I come from we have universities, seats of great learning -- where men go to become great thinkers. And when they come out, they think deep thoughts -- and with no more brains than you have... But! They have one thing you haven't got! A diploma!

"Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Universitatus Committeeatum e plurbis unum, I hereby confer upon you the honorary degree of Th.D."

"Th.D.?"

"Yeah -- that... that's Dr. of Thinkology!"

"It is time for us to do what we have been doing. And that time is every day. Oh joy, rapture! I've got a brain!"

Speaking of movies and brainless but credentialed mediocrities, in this week's newsletter, Rob Henderson recalls "the opening scene of the 2010 film The Social Network,” when

the Mark Zuckerberg character asks, referring to the Harvard student body, “How do you distinguish yourself in a population of people who all got 1600 on their SATs?”

"Victimhood narratives," says Henderson, "seem to be the answer elite colleges have provided." In fact, unless you are a victim, being good and intelligent not only won't be enough, but are no doubt markers of Privilege. Therefore, one must be able to say: I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people have victimized me! 

Henderson:

A recent story in The Chronicle of Higher Education tells the story of a student at the University of Pennsylvania who, the article suggests, embellished her background. Fierceton described herself as a first-generation, low-income, former foster youth in her application to the Ivy League university and, later, the Rhodes Scholarship. After two investigations, one by Penn and one by Rhodes, the university is reportedly withholding Fierceton’s degree and she has subsequently withdrawn from the scholarship.

In short, not only do elite universities "incentivize victimhood," but college advisors recommend applicants to "sell your pain." Thus, there is a race to the bottom, with students climbing under each other  to prove they are authentically pathetic:

How many supposedly underprivileged students admitted to elite universities are truly underprivileged? For every Mackenzie Fierceton we learn about, how many embellishments and outright fabrications go undiscovered?

Beyond gaming college admissions, there is also widespread dishonesty in the universities themselves, perhaps because they select for deceitful students.

A contemporary remake of the Wizard of Oz would have to feature a character who longs to be a genuine victim:

"Why, anybody can have a brain. That's a very mediocre commodity.... 

"Back where I come from we have universities, seats of great indoctrination -- where humans of every conceivable race and inconceivable gender go to become great victims. And when they come out, they feel deeply aggrieved -- and with no more oppression than you've experienced... But! They have one thing you haven't got! A diploma!

"Therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me, I hereby confer upon you the honorary degree of Vh.D."

"Vh.D.?"

"Yeah -- that... that's Dr. of VictimHood!"

A thought just flashed before me that the most consequential victim in history was and is Truth himself. Nor is this irrelevant to the subject of this post, because it is the template or deep structure of the above noted "race to the bottom" that began in academia but now pervades the culture. The entire phenomenon quite clearly partakes of the deep structure of Christianity, and is inconceivable in a non-Christian context.

For the template of Christianity implicitly teaches that the lowest was the highest, that the greatest victim was the redeemer. Which is why, for example, Barack Obama was elected, so, where's our redemption? Right over there, next to the communist omelet. 

But the real subject of this post is human intelligence, minus the contamination of bogus victimhood, status, distinction, and all the rest. The subject has been on my mind since rereading a book called Introduction to the Science of Mental Health, by Ripperger. It has a lot to say about intelligence, truth, knowledge, and logic, but it makes too much sense to ever be taught in grad school. That's no exaggeration, because I was there. I would have had no earthly idea what to make of the following, from the Foreword:

Christ warned us about what would happen if we do not base our endeavors on Him and His Eternal Truth....

This applies especially to the science of modern psychology. Since it does not have a solid foundation in an authentic view of man, modern psychology is doomed to be "swept away" to the scrap heap of futility.... Since [it] starts with faulty premises about what constitutes mental health, it cannot help but produce useless and sometimes even harmful theories and remedies for mental illness.

Out of time. To be continued tomorrow, or rather, begun...