The Answer Man: IQ & Morality
Only the stupid believe that might makes right. The rest of us think critically.
THE VIRTUAL INTERVIEW
In some of your past commentaries, you seem to imply that the great divide in the US is between the smart and the stupid, the educated and uneducated. Care to comment?
If I were smart, I wouldn’t comment, but the stupid side of me, where my ego resides, insists I do. The fact is that there is no consensus among academics and thinkers concerning the relationship between intelligence or IQ and morality. But I’ve yet to see a conclusive argument or study that says there isn’t.
So you are standing pat?
Intuitively I feel that I am right. Common wisdom dictates moral behavior, as in The Ten Commandments for Christians and Jews. But sometimes there are nuances that are more complex. This requires higher mental faculties to apply critical thinking to a situation. So smart people have an advantage there.
But what about educated people?
Education is no indication of smartness. Compare the Business Major to the Philosophy Major. That which is more concrete and quantifiable merely requires the application of formulas. However, the more abstract concepts require creative and analytical activities of a higher order. So in higher education there is a hierarchy of smartness. And yes, I know that business includes economics which can be highly theoretical.
Well then, how does this apply to the battle lines in the US today?
There’s a cloud of mental confusion hanging over the country because the underlying social and economic constructs are changing too rapidly. Those who are less smart rely on orthodoxies to provide a comfort zone for themselves - and therein lies the seeds of racism, anti-semitism, voter suppression, fascism - a rejection of “the other.” The smarter ones gravitate toward less-selfish more-empathic creative approaches to defining our responses to the changes. Conservative vs. liberal. Right vs left. Punitive vs forgiving. Emotion vs reason. Uneducated vs educated.
Are you saying that education is the answer to restoring the health and unity of the nation?
Precisely. I am not talking about vocational training. I am referring back to the days when college was not about career choices. We were there to get a liberal arts education as a useful foundation for pragmatic decisions later on. Starting with Hellenic history and philosophy - Socrates, Aristotle Plato - we immerse ourselves in the very core of Western Civilization. There we acquire all the tools we need for moral decision-making.
So now you’ve upped the ante - it’s the immoral vs. the moral.
The truly smart are always able to recognize those who are smarter than they are. With ego removed from the equation, all issues confronting us today can be decided within a moral context. And all can contribute to that discussion. The immoral are those who refuse to fully activate their mental capacities. They contribute emotional heat to the debate rather than rational cool. Hate rather than passion.
Now for the million dollar question: what makes an idea, action or person moral?
There is a kind of universal morality that would evolve in the formation of any society. Some of these are explicitly stated in various religious texts, like The Ten Commandments. Killing and stealing are obviously crimes against other people, as are lesser infringements on personal and community rights. These concerns are best expressed in the Golden Rule (or the Silver Rule in China): “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Deviant exceptions are infrequent enough as to justify enforcement.
If such is true, how does one explain the violence in American society, the hate-filled division of left and right, and the moral posturing on each side?
Like most leftists, American liberals are in a constant state of angst and repentance over their treatment of fellow humans. This is a healthy manifestation of a society seeking to reset its moral compass. On the other hand, the American right - known as Evangelicals, Republicans or Trumpsters - engage in actions and take positions that can best be described as helter-skelter or without moral sensibility. The right lives in a bubble of “moral relativity” that provides cover for their amorality. It’s always, “what’s good for me,” never “for us.”
How can the right live with such absurdity?
The right is governed by a Pack Mentality. “Also known as herd mentality, mob mentality, or gang mentality, unlike community-building, it is defined by elements of hostility and fear: If you're within the pack, you better play by the rules or risk getting kicked out. If you're outside of the pack, you're the enemy and not to be trusted.” (Edited Google definition) In a debate that pits emotion against logic, the winner will be those willing to use their guns.
You make the situation seem hopeless.
The great equalizer that will put both sides on a par is to get everyone THINKING. And once they start doing that, the mind’s natural curiosity will lead them to the ivory towers of reason. Once people are cleansed of their groundless fears there will be no need for guns to make rhetorical points. It will take a generation for the right wing to reform. But it is possible.
And the liberals?
They are working within a normative situation. No need to change course. In the end, truth and morality will overcome all opposition. It is the nature of things.
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Probably no story better illustrates the moral failure of the Right than their use of manufactured conspiracy theories to dupe voters, as in the case of Anthony Fauci that follows:
https://apple.news/AYgcOpWccTRC1JEaKFi-_wg