Debunking Elitism

The modern crisis, the fact that God is dead has brought us elitism. Nietzche is is often understood to be the father of the NAZI movement, although I am not convinced of this nor well enough read on the subject to quote others who would dis-agree with me. To me Nietzche was a highly ethical, moral man who eventually went bonkers after witnessing too many of mans moral transgressions. Nietzche suggested that God must be replaced by super-men and that all men should be subservient to the super man (what this acheives I do not know- more on this later). It is this modern crisis that the NAZI's were born. A belief in elitism characterises NAZI philosophy.

Does the super-man exist ? People assume that some people are much much smarter than the rest of us and attribute this to genetics. The same can be true about athletics. The Wayne Gretskys of the world can play hockey much better than the rest of us, but the rest of us were not dragged out onto a pond at 6 AM to practise hockey every day at the age of four years old.

I have some experience in serious swimming. I self trained, never had a coach and swam for several years for two miles per day in sets of 400 m freestyle followed by a pre/post warm up, warm down. This amounted to about 2.5 - 3 miles per day. At the age of 29, being a pack a day smoker and 15- 20 lbs over ideal weight, I acheived a 400 meter freestyle time of 4 minutes, 35 seconds. I was never an athlete, and I had severe allergies as a kid preventing me from being an athlete. The current world record for the 400 meter free style is 3:40:59, just a minute faster than I could do it. Its likely that a time of 3:30 or better has been acheived during practise for some athletes, although not offcially witnessed. Sometimes you are in a zone. Its likely that if I didn't smoke cigarrettes and was ten years younger my time would be significantly better with no change in training practises.

This record was achieved by an athlete that has daily professional coaching, was nearly a full time athlete who swam twice a day, a distance of around about 6- 8 miles (normal for swimmers in training although in this case I don't actually know). This athlete was Ian Thorpe who was 18 years old at the time, in his athletic prime, and likely never smoked a whole cigarette in his life.

Our physical abilities are remarkably similar. The same can be said of animals, how much faster is the best racing horse than a similar breed of horse that does not receive the same training for running ? Can the same thing be said of our intellectual abilities ? One would assume this to be the case until proven otherwise, given that both are believed to be rooted in biology and our biologys are very similar as well as very different from apes and monkeys and other lesser intelligent beings.

The folks that are the great scientists, doctors, mathematicians and judges all share the common trait of dedication to their field, a feverish devotion. The mathematician who proved fermats last theorem had the dream of doing so since he was a ten year old child. I didn't know who or what fermat was when I was a ten year old, nor did I care. He had a dedication and a lifelong dream. Andrew Wiles was knighted for this achievement. Andrew Wiles was the kind of ten year old who went to the library to read math books.

I met a master chess player once, he explained that he was very intelligent and likely the most intelligent person I had ever met, he also had a masters in physics- climatology - and he believed the AGW hypothesis until I showed him why it couldn't be true using only the data presented in Al Gores stupid movie. We were doing carpentry and the boss believed this guy that he was much more intelligent and he got the better jobs. I made a bet once, on a time required to do a moderately complex piece of carpentry. I did a far better job in one hour with simple tools than he did in 3 hours using complex tools and I won the bet and he paid me for it. So being a master at chess or having a masters in physics does not necessarily make one particularly intelligent.

We were all in school once, was it not the children who did their homework and showed an interest in the subject matter that got the highest marks ? I never knew anyone who got great marks in math who didn't like the subject and didn't do the homework. I have tutored perhaps 200 people on the subject and gotten to know them well regarding their mathematical abilities and attitude toward the subject. The people who had the trouble were disinterested in the subject matter (99% of them), the other 1% being perhaps incapable of doing it. I never did meet a student who had trouble that was giving the subject a serious effort. The big problem was always a lack of confidence.

I knew a doctor of philosophy once, we became friends because we were both broke and bored and I gave him what little money I had in exchange for his answers to my questions about philosophy and his help with my writing style. He claimed to have an IQ of 180+ and seemed very intelligent to me because of his knowledge of philosophy and literature as well as an incredibly rich life experience. He was an Iranian ("special forces" colonel in the Iran/Iraq war) but loved English literature and the language. One day he accused me of stealing six dollars from him, I pointed out the fact that this was impossible and that I couldn't have stolen the money. He insisted with the hypothesis that it was the only explanation. I know this wasn't the only possible explanation because I didn't take his money. So much for geniuses.

Plato said that the men of exceptional ability are both good and bad and should be watched because of their capacity to do evil [Platos Republic]. In our society we praise intellectual greatness and allow those such as Maurice Strong to operate largely in secrecy. Clearly our attitude and actions toward the intellectual elite are not self preserving. Is elitism another scam like the AGW hypothesis ? Do people naturally except IQ testing as a realistic test of human intelligence because they are told that this too is scientific ? Is the human mind itself capable of developing a realistic test of its own abilities ?

Why do we allow our so called "geniuses" to operate in secrecy ? Is this just another way of dividing us and allowing evil to help fulfill the nihilistic dream of a one world totalitarian government ?

What does genius really achieve for mankind ? Are we truly happier with our new computers than we were with our commodore 64's ? Has technology and intellectual achievement been good to mankind ? Does it increase happiness ? Aren't we all hedonists ?

Our intellectual prowess has brought us the machine, which can replace many of us. Our machines haven't made us happier. Maybe this is what the church knew in the dark ages. Maybe the nihilists want a new dark age for precisely this reason and they are using our machines and automation to accelerate our own destruction.