(no subject)
Saul's definition of intelligence (included again below) is an excellent partial truth. It is written concisely, and to many people I think it would reveal what they are the most in denial about. What Saul does not include in his justification is a critique of clinical intelligence tests ie the potential for people to be pathological and not adapted for their own survival.
There is a `clinical/pathological' aspect of intelligence (think the potential for people to die if not looked after), which although it is culturally biased towards surviving, it is not privileged. It indicates pathology as opposed to superiority and it is used to find those who need care, rather than who is more loved by the ruling class (superior).
Alfred Binet's motivation for devising early IQ tests was not to be able to distinguish who was superior (where I agree superiority is necessarily relative to the strengths of the ruling class), but simply to unearth those who in early schooling who would benefit from a different approach to schooling (corrective education).
From `The Doubters Companion, A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense'. John Ralsoton Saul.
`Intelligence: The ruling elites description of its own strengths. It follows that this is the primary measure of superiority among humans.'
...
`Controlled mediocrity is more intelligent than either original or sensible thinking because it is responsible to existing structures.'
There is a `clinical/pathological' aspect of intelligence (think the potential for people to die if not looked after), which although it is culturally biased towards surviving, it is not privileged. It indicates pathology as opposed to superiority and it is used to find those who need care, rather than who is more loved by the ruling class (superior).
Alfred Binet's motivation for devising early IQ tests was not to be able to distinguish who was superior (where I agree superiority is necessarily relative to the strengths of the ruling class), but simply to unearth those who in early schooling who would benefit from a different approach to schooling (corrective education).
From `The Doubters Companion, A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense'. John Ralsoton Saul.
`Intelligence: The ruling elites description of its own strengths. It follows that this is the primary measure of superiority among humans.'
...
`Controlled mediocrity is more intelligent than either original or sensible thinking because it is responsible to existing structures.'