MENSA

A friend of my father is a member of MENSA. He seems like a rather intelligent man to me, and I suppose MENSA would prefer to populate its roster with such folk. Once again, he has encouraged me to take the entrance exam to try to join.

I have again declined the offer. For two reasons:

1) The organization comprises of, per their origins, of extremely bright, high IQ, arguably, genius members. I do not think that I qualify. Regardless of the exam. I have never considered myself high IQ or genius level - I am simply not creative enough. Every bit of my knowledge is learned and cross referenced with other information that I retain - but I do not create 'new' ideas that, in my opinions, would qualify one for genius. I am not that intelligent - I am just driven to learn. I suspect that most of humanity has the same cognitive ability as I, they just choose not to use it in the same manner.

2) I don't feel any desire to join an organization such as Mensa, even if I do qualify. There is just no appeal. Let us take for granted, for a moment, that I passed the exam to join. Why would I want to? To prove my intelligence? Mensa cannot do that via a single test - a work, deed, action, etc. can prove genius, not an exam. Would I join to surround myself with other high IQ folk? I can do that anywhere. Those with high IQ aren't hard to pick out of a crowd - it just so happens that there are few of them. But they can be found.

I don't want to say that I find Mensa pretentious - I don't. Snob though I may be, I would not scoff at an organization that, undoubtedly, holds some of the more intelligent men and women in the world. I just don't have a desire to test for the organization, much less join. Perhaps that will one day change.

Addendum - One can only take the Mensa qualifying exam once in their lifetime. Perhaps I don't wish to try because I fear that I would fail, thus having to life with the absolute knowledge my entire life that either I am not a genius, or that if I think the test is ridiculous, I am fooling myself.