Doc has been writing about the perils of IQ tests. The Doc Searls Weblog : Saturday, May 14, 2005

I'm reminded of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. To paraphrase.

"I'm a Beta. Betas are the best. Those Alphas are so stuck up. They think they can do anything with their precious intelligence. I don't want to be a leader like them. I'm better being second. And Betas are so much better than those stupid Gammas. And as for the Deltas. Well somebody has to do all those terrible jobs like picking up the trash. And I'm glad it's not me. Yes. Betas are the best."

And I'm also reminded of one of Gurdjieff's teaching stories. As a kid he was out with his father and uncle in the fields listening to them talk.
Father: What is God doing now?
Uncle: He's making ladders.
Father: What are the ladders for?
Uncle: For the nations of the world to go up and down on.

It seem to me that IQ tests, streaming in schools and national propaganda are all aimed at the same thing and for very much the same reasons. They are simplistic techniques for telling us what to think. And they get used because it's a great deal easier than teaching us how to think.


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