The Social Stigma of Genius
by Joe Bandel
I recently had an interesting insight into my own self defeating behaviors and those of our society. All my life I have been smart; I joined Mensa for the first time in 1988, left almost immediately and then rejoined in 2002 only to repeat the cycle and drop out again until yesterday when I renewed my membership for the third time in over 28 years. You see, I have been taught to be ashamed of being a genius! Even now I think about wording it differently, ashamed of my intelligence, ashamed of having a genius IQ. Part of me wants to word it more politely, to be more politically correct and not hurt anyone’s feelings or offend them. It’s just like because I’m tall (6’4″) I stoop self consciously so I don’t stand out so much. What’s that all about anyway?
There is a hierarchy to our society. Certain people are held in higher regard than others. They have a higher social status and are treated differently and with more respect than others. Some examples of those at the top are: Doctors, scientists, athletes, authors and members of the clergy. Perhaps we can even say politicians! Most of us remain stuck at the social level we were born into. Except for the rare ones who excel on their own like singers, artists and athletes, the only escape is through the education system.
The rest of us struggle tooth and nail for every bit of self regard we can find. You want to be a writer so you take a course on writing. The teacher is very helpful at lifting your skills to a certain point, but when you begin to go beyond the abilities of your teacher that same teacher tries putting you back in your place, below their own status. They are the teacher, you are the student. You can see this played out over and over again in all areas of life. It is a fact of nature!
But when you show up with a Mensa bumper sticker on your car, or take your Mensa water jug to work where others can see it things change radically. You think of yourself differently. People treat you differently because they don’t know how to relate to you any more. That is because genius is at the absolute top of the social pyramid! Now they place themselves beneath you and that is the stupid part. To score at the top 2% of the general population means that one in every fifty people is probably a genius and able to get into Mensa. (notice how I said that instead of saying, “can probably score high enough to get into Mensa”) But they won’t do it; they won’t even try because they don’t believe in themselves strongly enough. They lack the healthy self esteem to even attempt taking the test. The saddest thing is that joining Mensa is perhaps the single most empowering thing a person can do for themselves in our society and for their own self esteem.
Hi Joe, thanks for another great post. I was wondering if in the past 2 or 3 days if you felt different like things are about to change? I have been feeling as the scene/reality in my life is about to change very quickly. I feel distant from my current reality, yet missing it while still living in it. As I can feel myself being somewhere else and doing other things. I’m wondering if something is going on with me or is something happening. I’m not sure where to go for answers. My only guess is that my physical reality is about to alter right in front of my eyes. Thanks for your time. Roy
I took the Mensa test when I was about 17, and did not quite get a high enough score. But I’ve found the same effect when I’ve worn a Phi Theta Kappa (junior college honor society) shirt to work, or taken other such schwag. You get labelled a snob, or a ‘nerd’, but it does kind of entice the boss into giving you more responsibility, though not necessary paying you for it.