Mensa

[globetrotter]

IQ is a tool to measure part of your abilities and identity - sometimes we give it more weight than other tools (espectially when we have a high IQ).

other tools are the various personality test results, cultural, tribal and racial profiles, proffetions, hometowns etc.

the fact is, we might very well be in a position where all of our friends fall within a certain, small, IQ range, or fall into a similar personality grouping, or share the same proffetion, or are of the same race or religion. I am not sure that choosing to belong to a club based on any one of those would be all that interesting.

 

[Carlo]

Quote:

(She later decided to scrap that plan in favor of finding someone funny with great hair)
Chuck, who was that? BTW LOVE the ties.
LOL - Ask her Steve... I think she's hanging around. I'm very proud of my IQ test scores. I scored the same number they put on my football jersey back in the day so I can always remember it. Glad you like the ties, nice choices. Figured you'd only order blue with no hint of red though

 

[auto90403]

mensa meetings are supposed to attract some of the most desperate, pathetic and socially maladjusted men on the planet. they're smart in the sense of being good at puzzles and word games. not so good at having high-paying jobs with lots of responsibility. also not so smart in terms of attracting girls.

mensa meetings = loser central.

 

[tsloop]

mensa meetings are supposed to attract some of the most desperate, pathetic and socially maladjusted men on the planet. they're smart in the sense of being good at puzzles and word games. not so good at having high-paying jobs with lots of responsibility. also not so smart in terms of attracting girls.

mensa meetings = loser central.

So I take it you don't like people that go to mensa meetings.

 

[Jill]

mensa meetings are supposed to attract some of the most desperate, pathetic and socially maladjusted men on the planet. they're smart in the sense of being good at puzzles and word games. not so good at having high-paying jobs with lots of responsibility. also not so smart in terms of attracting girls.

mensa meetings = loser central.

Wow.  Easy there, fella.  

Until you've been to one, I suggest you reserve judgement.

While I don't make a habit of hangin' with the brainiacs, I AM a member, and every other Mensa member I know is pretty darned normal.  Granted, the ones who DO attend said social events probably AREN'T.  But seriously.  Do you really know about that which you speak?

Let's not be so harsh.  There's no shame in being a member of Mensa.  Most people get rather snotty purporting all the reasons they think it's a bad thing, because they know they could never qualify.  I frankly don't care, one way or another.  Some of the most wonderful, influential people I've know in my life in NO WAY possessed superior intellect.  From my experience (I leave it OFF my resume) a membership in Mensa and $4 will get you a Latte at Starbucks.

BUT, I don't think anyone has the right to be this ugly (as many of you have been) towards a group of people based on what is most likely 3rd- and 4th-hand information.  Really people.  Lighten up.  If someone wants to join Mensa, so be it.  If someone wants to be a Catholic or a Trad or a Socialist or a Texas Longhorn fan.... can't we just let it be?  We don't have to share the same aspirations, but seriously.  "loser Central"?... This senseless rhetoric gets tiring.

OK, edited to acknowledge I'm a little grumpy after a long week.  But I'm just growing a tad weary of people who just want to criticize, condemn and complain without providing any other alternatives.

 

[gorgekko]

I would only join -- and I do qualify -- if they gave a fez as part of the membership package.

Why a fez? Why not?

 

[tsloop]

I would only join -- and I do qualify -- if they gave a fez as part of the membership package.

Why a fez? Why not?

Being a member does give discounts on hotels, car rentals, and auto insurance, and there is a Mensa credit card. They don't offer a fez unfortunately.

 

[PHV]

Quote:

(gorgekko @ July 01 2005,15:16) I would only join -- and I do qualify -- if they gave a fez as part of the membership package. Why a fez? Why not?
Being a member does give discounts on hotels, car rentals, and auto insurance, and there is a Mensa credit card. Â They don't offer a fez unfortunately.
How much are these discounts? I know members myself and when they pitched me they never mentioned discounts on anything.... what does the mensa credit card give you? Can you redeem points to buy the puzzle books or something? If there's a tangible benefit to joining, then I can see a reason.

 

[AlanC]

If someone wants to be a Catholic or a Trad or a Socialist or a Texas Longhorn fan.... can't we just let it be?

A Longhorn? Now let's not get carried away. The bounds of tolerance can only stretch so far...

 

[countdemoney]

I think the point is to not get caught up in the "elite" nature of being a mensan. Most of the bad mensa experiences you will hear about, and possibly experience, come from the following situation:

The mensan is incorrect about something, but is personally invested in the argument - out of options, they then then make an appeal to authority, their status as mensan, when it has no actual bearing to the argument.

In the process, they basically insult the other person (i.e., I'm smarter than you are), and are oftentimes incorrect - see Jill's example for one such entertaining instance.

All that being said, if you want to join, go ahead and do it.

 

[Matt]

(She later decided to scrap that plan in favor of finding someone funny with great hair)

she hadnt seen the prom picture Chuck?

 

[montecristo#4]

There are lots of high IQ societies. Here's an amusing page about them: http://www.eskimo.com/~miyaguch/history.html Be sure to read about the Giga Society.

Having reviewed this "history", I am now sufficiently intrigued to want to start a new society for high men's style IQs. We can test by asking style questions of varying difficulty, like: If an individual is wearing a black leather belt, his shoes should be: a) Tan b) Brown c) Black d) Blue suede e) Flip flops or Brown is for: a) Farmer. b) Ronald Reagan c) 1950s people in the midwest d) Everyone e) B and D f) The set that includes the set of Ronald Reagan and the set of everyone and is therefore been proven to be a logical impossibility. We will restrict membership to the top 1% and hand out fezzes at the door to our meetings.

 

[gorgekko]

I'd totally join for the fez alone. Start it up and I'm there.

 

[Nonk]

I have to say that I have read this thread with disappointment. Many threads on this forum quickly sink into pathetic schoolboy debates with some members trying to impress each other with their intellectual might and knowledge of obscure subjects, all obtained during the course of expensive educations that are continually mentioned. These educations have seemingly taught everything except humility, perspective, an understanding of appropriateness and an appreciation of real life verus academia.

Expecting the same here I was further disappointed that this debate did not even reach that level, no matter how pathetic and self indulgent it is, and instead is just post after post of the most bone, predictable and generally incorrect assumptions and comments about Mensa, it members and it functions.

I was a member for a few years and attended many functions, ranging from an afternoon in the pub to formal affairs in London and found the varied people who attended to be generally interesting and fun, and to have none of the arrogance, inflated ego and generally obnoxious attitude of some here who haven seen fit to remark on something that they know little about.

Finally Mensa does not consider itself to be an elite organisation, simply one for members who share a certain trait, the level of IQ required for entry is not especially high, although many members exceed it by a huge amount,(I am not one of them) it is simply a minimum standard, and to those who have seen fit to mock it, I would point out it is in excess of that generally needed to enter any of the professions or places of education that they are so proud of.


Some of the arrogant pricks on this forum would do well in life to put up or shut up, lets have this as a starting point. If you don't want to join don't, if you want to criticise the entry standard then do so when you have reached it, if you want to criticise the functions, do so after you have attended one.

 

[dusty]

Finally Mensa does not consider itself to be an elite organisation

So it's just a bunch of guys who like to get together and have a drink? I thought they called themselves "the international high IQ society;" how are they not considering themselves elite?

This is not a group of people getting together because they share an interest, it's a group of people who seek to seperate themselves from the rest of the population on the basis of a near-meaningless measure of intelligence.

Mensa states it's goals as the fostering of human intelligence, encouraging research, and to provide intellectual opportunities for its members. Which of those goals requires an IQ above 140 to accomplish? Mensa is a joke.

I don't think Mensa members are losers, but I do think joining requires some degree of either arrogance or naivete.