Has the US lost its edge permanently?

[SirWagginston]

You guys don't know what you're talking about. At the MENSA parties I go to, we get drunk and play board games. Connect 4 is my fave.

You guys are wrong about smart people. When someone gets really, really smart, they start to have nihilist and existential thoughts. A lot of them feel disconnected from the rest of society because nobody understands or relates to them. They see the value of "success" as typically measured to be subjective. Some of them will suck it up and go on to become acclaimed academics or inventors, but a lot of them won't.

Fun story--it's about the smartest person I've ever met. When I entered university as a 1st year, he was already programming his own video game, from scratch, all by himself. I know he wasn't lying about it because I went onto his computer when he wasn't looking and played it. He also invented his own language and was writing a book. He had an incredible vocabulary and was clearly above proficient in all academic subjects.

Despite all that, he didn't last through our first year. He had a weird addiction to robitussen, which he could guzzle like water. I tried to do it with him, one time. I drank two bottles and threw up. He drank six and kept it all down. But then he got in a confrontation with one of the local police officers, who happened to be very hated by me and probably everyone else for his terrible little man syndrome. My friend decided to punch him in the face, and was, of course, sent to jail. I told him he was wasting his talent, and that for him to be happy he needed to make something of himself. He said that happiness comes from within and is what you make of your situation. That he can cultivate his mind just as well without the rest of the world knowing about it, and would be perfectly content as a hippie or a wanderer.

I took him to a big MENSA convention in Pittsburgh one time. He stayed up the night before smoking weed and drinking robitussen. Came back to the hotel, clearly still under the influence, to get about one hour of sleep. We went to the convention and joined the logic tournament. I had another friend sneak me beer, and I got wasted and did horribly. But this kid, in his THC and DXM-induced haze, somehow manages to win 3rd place. And the funny thing was, nobody in the tournament thought that was weird. They've seen it before.

[dewilliams2]

You guys don't know what you're talking about. At the MENSA parties I go to, we get drunk and play board games. Connect 4 is my fave.

You guys are wrong about smart people. When someone gets really, really smart, they start to have nihilist and existential thoughts. A lot of them feel disconnected from the rest of society because nobody understands or relates to them. They see the value of "success" as typically measured to be subjective. Some of them will suck it up and go on to become acclaimed academics or inventors, but a lot of them won't.

Fun story--it's about the smartest person I've ever met. When I entered university as a 1st year, he was already programming his own video game, from scratch, all by himself. I know he wasn't lying about it because I went onto his computer when he wasn't looking and played it. He also invented his own language and was writing a book. He had an incredible vocabulary and was clearly above proficient in all academic subjects.

Despite all that, he didn't last through our first year. He had a weird addiction to robitussen, which he could guzzle like water. I tried to do it with him, one time. I drank two bottles and threw up. He drank six and kept it all down. But then he got in a confrontation with one of the local police officers, who happened to be very hated by me and probably everyone else for his terrible little man syndrome. My friend decided to punch him in the face, and was, of course, sent to jail. I told him he was wasting his talent, and that for him to be happy he needed to make something of himself. He said that happiness comes from within and is what you make of your situation. That he can cultivate his mind just as well without the rest of the world knowing about it, and would be perfectly content as a hippie or a wanderer.

I took him to a big MENSA convention in Pittsburgh one time. He stayed up the night before smoking weed and drinking robitussen. Came back to the hotel, clearly still under the influence, to get about one hour of sleep. We went to the convention and joined the logic tournament. I had another friend sneak me beer, and I got wasted and did horribly. But this kid, in his THC and DXM-induced haze, somehow manages to win 3rd place. And the funny thing was, nobody in the tournament thought that was weird. They've seen it before.

No we surround ourselves with other interesting people and scholars as well...we just don't join a club.

I often times feel like I'm surrounded by masses of ignorant people. Like an ocean I am drowning in. But I don't join any clubs or organizations like that...I just seek out people I can relate to and carry on an intelligent conversation with.

[IndiReloaded]

When someone gets really, really smart, they start to have nihilist and existential thoughts.

I agree with this^. But there are ways to channel it. LOL, theoretical physics. No wonder.

[dewilliams2]

Wow, I know who I'm jerking off to tonight

Looks to made up...not really my type...although I do like the **** me heals she is wearing.

[Cbrider]

Looks to made up...not really my type...

This is not a club I am a member of - she's got it all right .

[dewilliams2]

This is not a club I am a member of - she's got it all right .

Well I mean I'm not gay...I'd do her...I just wouldn't go outta my way to pursue a woman that looked like that.

I tend to go for women who look...well normal....not like barbie.

[Petit Papillon]

Wow, I know who I'm jerking off to tonight

Smart AND sexy ,what else do you need

[Lipp]

Smart AND sexy ,what else do you need

Rohypnol....

[dewilliams2]

Rohypnol....

I always used that to sedate monkeys when I had to move them and they didn't want to cooporate.

The US government really makes you sign a lot of paperwork and get background checks when you make a big order of that. Kinda throws up some red flags I guess.

[CAM]

She's neither smart nor sexy. IQ is a measure of intellectual potential and little else. Potential doesn't always translate into deeds. I'm high IQ but there are those who have higher and do more than me and those that have not done much with their brains. If you don't use it, the brain deteriorates...literally. I knew several MENSA people who went nowhere in life...they cling to their club membership as if that is a shield covering their multiple failures. MENSA is fine and I'm sure that there are tons of very nice people in the organization, but if it is nothing more than an ego stroking exercise that has nothing to do with actual accomplishment...then I don't see the point of it.

And, just being smart...doesn't mean that you are happy or contented. I've known lots of low IQ people who are more contended in their lives that super smart people.

Incidentally, masturbating to a picture of some poster-child of pornography (i.e., the blonde woman in the image) does not excercise your brain. All it does is exercise your pituitary gland, your brain stem, and your genitals. Very little else.

[CAM]

BTW, getting back to the original thread concept here....that's one of our problems in the US. We stroke the little ones and tell them they are geniuses and so bright and have so much potential. And, the follow through isn't there. LOTS OF HARD WORK is what it takes. Lots of failures are often something that occur before the great success. Instead, the kids are shielded from any failure, any hurt, any real pain. They think that eating live bugs on TV is a sign of toughness. BS. They fail and they are taught to blame someone else...its racism, its sexism, its elitism, its whatever...something. But, never their fault.

I've gone to university recitals for music students and they are all praised for their great talent. Some are techncially good, but nearly all lack REAL emotion behind the music. Why? Because that extra edge that would make them great is a result of living and experiencing success and failure as a result of really trying to make that ultimate leap to success. And, is that explained to them? No. Instead, "good enough" has become "excellent" and "wonderful" and "you are a genius." Blah, blah, blah.

Why do I bring this up? Because that ultimate edge is what makes for a great society and civilisation. The developing world is accomplishing these things. The developing world has more parents and teachers that are honest with children and tell them "Hey, you are good buy you ain't great!" "Want to be better? Then work harder and harder and maybe, you might become great."

Results count. Also, the consant striving to go beyond the limits that you think you possess. Heck, I damn near ruined my health just to get as far as I did. I've known many people who have totally ruined their health and parts of their minds to reach further and accomplish more. Real success requires real pain...not fake pain. And you can't mask the pain with drugs...you have to feel it because when you feel it, then you know it in your soul.

[CAM]

And, some things are beyond hard work and IQ...some greatness is purely innate but still it requires hard work and ability to discover that which is innate, to nuture it and to make it bloom. 99.99999% of us don't have that. It is rare. But, you won't know unless you take yourself (and the other key members of society) to that limit. Socrates spend his whole life trying to discover the innate qualities of different types of individuals so as to built a better society...its an age old question that continually needs exploration.

[CAM]

You really need to get laid

That's your response?

Well, I think you answered my question: yes, the US has lost its edge.

[CAM]

The US has become a nation of blank shot copulation and fake tits. If all you are doing is ejaculating in a receptacle of some type or serving as a cum sponge with tits (or not), then you aren't really a man or a woman...you are either a dick or an empty vessel. Luckily were running out of fossil fuel in the next fifty years because the planet (and the human race) could do with a lot fewer "Americans." Then you can just stroke off or screw until you drop dead.

[Junket]

The US has become a nation of blank shot copulation and fake tits. If all you are doing is ejaculating in a receptacle of some type or serving as a cum sponge with tits (or not), then you aren't really a man or a woman...you are either a dick or an empty vessel. Luckily were running out of fossil fuel in the next fifty years because the planet (and the human race) could do with a lot fewer "Americans." Then you can just stroke off or screw until you drop dead.

What?
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