Is it just my perception or has the intelligence level just dropped by a whopping 50%?

Last time a friend of mine asked me why I was scoring so high, I told him that I simply understood what was laid before my eyes. Then, he concluded that I must be brilliant. Answering him I went like this:

"Doing well in simple affairs is not a matter of intelligence; you could too get the same results and with the least efforts. The only difference between us is that you are unaware of how to approach these things."

This hypothesis I made on human understanding poses the problem of unawareness. Without speaking at length of this predicate and what brought it forth, I will resume it as being: people are ignoring their ignorance. Being left in such a predicament as that of not knowing, men are forced to decide, move and act independently of any certainty as to see which is preferable and which is not; who here can really claim to know what is love, what is justice or how we ascribe any depiction of legitimate and right demonstration to the Good?

You may not be aware of the extent of these questions and left unable to conceive the simplest problems it uncovers when an attempt is made at answering them, but be certain that it is by far more complex than just saying "all opinions are equal," "it's my perception," or that it "changes from person to person." Much like we are left to think at the most lengthy equations of mathematics, unable to assert a good answer with a simple look at the question, we are unable, just by seeing there is a need for answer regarding a given question, to propose a sufficient postulate for which the system is valuable in all regards. As an obvious example, think of how to form a square of half the surface of the former square from which it is drawn and you are allowed only a ruler without measurement and a compass to accomplish the task. At first, an answer seems impossible and it is indeed impossible to present analytically a method to follow; you must use a synthesis to deduce a principia ("which comes first", lit. principle) from which, or from combination with further premises, will result in a predicate, enabling you to produce the result. For the curious ones, the answer is to cut the sides at their half and use these four centre points as the ends of the square, thus drawing at a 45 degree angle from the original one. But this doesn't matter much for our demonstration here: really, the question is often more complex than we might think it is at first glance and the behaviour people follow is that of minimizing the complexity and importance of those questions, reducing them to be choices instead of actual problems. And, if you are to critic this statement, saying that they could be right, then there's something missing: a irrefutable justification, a demonstration, something which grants their position the value they give to it -- really, if you just read quickly few pages from Plato, Kant or perhaps Descartes, your probable head ache might be enough to convince you that they're not going to get this part of the answer right away without efforts. This is what I defined as unawareness: they are not enabling themselves to see their present incapacity, their state of ignorance; they can't even conceive the extent of the problem, let alone answering it correctly.

This is certainly not new to us; 2400 ago -- a most saddening fact -- people were arrogant, pretentious, ignorant and unaware of their predicament. It's not a period thrown out ex nihilo; it's the period in which Socrates lived... And, they do not seem to be any near to salvage themselves from such a problematic position; as time goes by, they get more and more into this cage. There is this maze of subjectivism and relativism through which people's narcissism is most obviously expressed; it's MY perception, MY idea; it's what I, MYSELF, think... see this tendency to drag back the argument onto themselves, to make themselves the centre of the matter? They are arrogant to the point of defining their self person as the source and judge of reality, as the person from which truth is declined. it's obviously unconscious, but this is exactly what they are doing: self-reflecting and self-centring the concern and matter of all questions.

And, if I were to be right, you'd observe precisely what we see: people will react to anyone who breaks or threatens this relationship between knowledge and the self with a form of avoidance. The first one is found in fear; they'll deflect the discussion, avoid answering, will limit the extent of their words, try to justify unnecessarily they motives without us to ask -- all this to prevent us from taking them back. The second degree of reaction is aggressiveness; they'll attack you (since they consider the object and subject (answer and answerer) to be somehow equivalent) to repulse you, they'll answer with harshness and look down upon you, trying to get your psychological self "lesser powerful." It almost sound like I'm speaking of an animal, but those are really and simply unconscious men.

Understand they perceive a correction of ideas as threat to their certainty, to their safeness and comfort. The person who does this is likely to hear barking or he'll receive some claws or teeth if he gets nearer -- that's what they do.

If they were just to do two simple things and strive for those two ideas, all those reactions would be inhibited, rendered impossible. It's simply a matter of being humble enough to receive critic, to critic ourselves, to allow and propose doubt; and it also regards giving an effort to think, to get aware of our ignorance. Once you start question instead of answering in a headless way, you appear more brilliant, though you are only using your intelligence to greater ends.

People aren't stupid; they are just unconscious ignorants unable to apply their skill to the right end.

Yes, you're right - overall, people are less intelligent than in the recent past. There are a few reasons for this.

1. There are more of us. A big increase in population has the tendency to breed out intelligence. It's like there's a fixed amount of it, and just not enough to go around. But seriously, intelligence is getting bred out of Americans at least, because:

2. Intelligent people are reproducing less. Come on, let's face it. You know and I know that it's the less intelligent people who are popping out loads of young.

3. Partially, this increase in stupid people is an illusion enabled by the Internet. LOTS of people are posting nonsense all over the 'net. Just stop by YouTube sometime and read the comments below the videos. I guess you don't even have to go that far... just look around here a bit. It's possible that these stupid people were always out there, but we just didn't know it. Now they're hanging out all over the Internet in all their glory.

4. The ubiquity of video and audio entertainment means that people aren't reading as much. That's one idea, anyway. And we can add this together with the unfortunate phenomenon of texting, in which people type things like:

u r stoopid 4ever, tell ur g/f to gimme the $$ and i be ur bff

...and so on. Don't you find that just really ****ing annoying??

This question is just the surface of what you're really trying to ask. It's very deep. Just because you are intelligent, doesn't mean you're going to believe in a more complex belief system. It's also possible that the more simple it is, the more logical it seems, which would concern those who are intelligent (which would be able to pick up on the fact that its more logical). About the I.Q. thing... IQ gives people a false sense of security. I wouldn't go by that. Oh, and unless people have had their I.Q. test taken from a psychologist, they're full of it.

its not that people are stupider its just that the percentiles are going up for people here let me explain

when the old greeks and romans were around and running rampant their were less people in the world and you could easily find and point out all the smart and wise people for they were part of kings/queens/emperors court and the poor and stupid were just out their making a living.

now skip forward to present day and you see their is a load more people than back then what has happened to the smart people might you ask now?

well they have some in the established government's and their are many great scientists out their but they aren't recognized nor are they publicizing them selves. the amount of smart people has stayed at a steady percentile but you wont notice them because they are hidden behind the mass of the other billions of regulars schmucks.

not to mention these smart people cant get into any highly publicized jobs because they are already taken so they have to work like the regular schmucks and are hidden away

See "The End of the Flynn Effect?", Sundet, Barlaug, and Torjussen, and

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_... for examples of what imo is simultaneously going on:

a dumbing down effect of internet and IM usage,

an increased knowledge awareness by internet and other venues users, and

a lessening of the nurture effect and training effect termed the Flynn Effect.

In other words, an excluded middle fallacy if one simply sides with either/or in the "intelligence changing?" topic.

Other sources: "Emotions: Transforming Anger, Fear and Pain," Marilyn Barrick,

"Nihilism," Eugene Rose,

"A Philosophy of Universality," O. M. Aivanhov, and

"The Great Divorce," C. S. Lewis.

Reviews at http://www.amazon.com/

the perception portrayed by the media is caused by the media, to a large extent. people are too easily conformed to their parents and the media, thus their parents and the media become their limitations. its a shame that a majority of people don't think for themselves, they let others do their thinking for them, like george bush did. i believe in people rule, but not when people are as retarded as they are today. how the **** did sarah palin get into any form of power, she must've done a lot of naughty things or america really is just that incompetent. but there is a small percentage of people who's intelligence is increasing, its just really hard to find them sometimes.

Many of the conveniences of technology has allowed people to take a break from having to think. All of our devices and programs and the establishments that society patrons are essentially stupification machines, driving the ever depreciating cognitive strength of the average American. As a mathematician I have made note of this already... its very apparent to me. Its far more obvious in the math and logic and other rationalistic aspects of our society. Less so obvious where the demand for thought isnt as great. Instead of asking for help on math, people ask for help using their calculators. People ask "where did *my work* go wrong" when all they did was ask a website what the answer was. People are always too stupid to use what they got, giving themselves far more credit than they deserve. Its the not having that forces them past the need for. People no longer feel challenged. People no longer want challenge. "My brain hurts" is a very old complaint Ive heard for at least twenty years. Hello?! Your brain doesnt feel pain, what you are feeling is thought happening. People are given an easy out, they are given devices that think for them or that otherwise stagnate thought. They are given devices that are more capable than what their current needs are... when they should be given devices that are as capable or less so than their needs. For example, a calculator should always be less advanced than the current subject matter being learned. This allows the student to use the calculator as a convenience and for verification, without giving them the ability to rely on it and forcing the subject matter at hand out of their own brain.

People are getting stupider by the day. I deal with the public, and some of the questions people ask me, I have a hard time not laughing directly in their face. My family owns a Equipment Rental and Leasing business, and we get ALL KINDS there. I had a guy the other day that wanted to rent a 45,000 Excavator and "just pay" when he returned. UMM yeah, not just going to give you an expensive piece of equipment with no deposit. He got pissed, swore at me, and then left. So to Re-answer you question, they are getting stupider by the day, and most of them come into my work.

No, you're just becoming better at noticing stupidity. People are actually getting smarter, a trend known as the Flynn effect.

actually it is not media perception, people have had lives much too easy. people are just not trying to be them, they are trying to fit in, which leads to an intelligence drop, caused by hanging around people that are already... not so intellectual.

It's both. People are getting stupider because... well I could list a million things but to be honest, I'm too lazy lol. The media has a hand in it though.