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- Asimov appeared to feel uncomfortable with those who thought they were better than others because of their Mensa status, and some he states were typically right-wing. I am entirely unclear though how the claimed racist ideology of John Campbell Jr is related.
> I miss Isaac Asimov, and I miss the America that created him.
An America with a typically right-wing Mensa bias (and likely upper class society)? That's the America that the author misses?
by bArray - Reading I, Asimov as a kid immediately converted me from a Southern Baptist to humanist/atheist.
I'm sad that atheist discourse has moved away from Vonnegut/Sagan/Le Guin-style humanism. Starting with Hitchens, prominent intellectuals seem like they hate God more than they believe in people.
Are there any current writers or public figures that have taken up the human-loving atheism of my youth?
by sp1nningaway - > Are there any current writers or public figures that have taken up the human-loving atheism of my youth?
Many. Kim Stanley Robinson for instance.
by orsenthil - // I became uncomfortably aware that Mensans, however high their paper IQ might be, were likely to be as irrational as anyone else.
This reminds me of Asimov persuading his own children not to have children because he decided that population growth was an issue.
by xyzelement - It's human nature. We just love to belong to a group of people and think it's the bestest group of people ever.
Thanks to that we have a pretty advanced society, unlike any other being on the planet. And we also have ethnic cleansings, religious prosecution, terrorism... Also unlike any other being on the planet.
- I agree that a sense of belonging is a foundational need for humans.
I disagree that the fulfillment of this need must beget violence.
If as a culture we de-emphasized dominion over others, de-emphasized reward and punishment, and instead emphasized respect to oneself and others, there would be a lot less violence.
- Chimps do a kind of ethnic cleansing.by baggy_trough
- ->It's human nature. We just love to belong to a group of people and think it's the bestest group of people ever.
And this is also where Human conflict originates from. Any conflict of any kind. Bestest group decides being right is no longer enough, the other side must also be made to lose. A smaller group feels marginalized, they recruit and reach to grab power. Rest of humanity is horrified and organizes against it. Peace is restored, we sign treaties and build monuments. And then the cycle repeats.
All that to say, humans are fundamentally flawed but kind of magical beings given we have survived all cycles for over 2 million years now
by arjunnvl - A sense of superiority due to status (including race, wealth, etc), and ability, is a stepping stone on the way to lessening the worth, and so humanity, of others.by nstents
- Doesn't that conclusion make you feel somewhat superior to people who don't share it? If not, shouldn't it?by delichon
- In a moment of weakness, I joined a high-IQ group (Triple Nine Society). The whole mailing list was just people having the same political arguments that were on the rest of social media, just with a bigger vocabulary.by hazard