Mensa for all
It used to be called the Club for Intelligent People, but today it is a registered association, according to its own information in over 100 countries and with the largest numbers of members in the USA, the founding country Great Britain and Germany. Here under the name MinD - which is supposed to look like the English word for mind, but is pronounced quite differently, as if it were a herbal sweet. Only a highly intelligent person could have thought up something like that.
Now, one would think that if one is so arrogant and elitist, the association would not attach any importance to further members. After all, since 1981 there has been an admission requirement to pass a scientific test or to provide recognised proof that one does not belong to the 98% of the population who are 'normal'.
But that is now an end. Not because of the gender debate or equality for the disabled. It has been scientifically proven that intelligence tests are rubbish and basically cannot 'measure' anything. For those who perhaps still believe that a quotient is meaningful and that statistics basically contain something true, let me assure you that an intelligence quotient can be determined for all organic substances. Even the toast in the fridge, since it has an age and a (social) environment and the word quotient means that it is mathematically divided - and you cannot divide by 0 - is, according to science, below average in relation to other types of bread, but still intelligent.
Why highly gifted people?
The reason why it is no longer called the Association for Intelligent People is obvious, since every human being is biologically 'intelligent' by virtue of his cell structure - at least more than what is in his refrigerator, unless he belongs to the Sinclair television family. And it also follows that the restriction human has been preserved, because otherwise resourceful pet owners could try to smuggle in their pets ... no-no, the association is much too clever for that, no matter how intelligent the animals are.
We would like to inform our readers that in order to determine IQ, age is taken into account as well as origin, because the brainiacs believe that cognitive abilities decline with time. Fortunately, we know better that the brain is not mechanically driven. So the grease that keeps the gear bones moving does not become tough, and the saying that 'old iron' rusts in cannot be attributed to this either.
(see picture below)
It took a lot of thought and above all overcoming to declare the admission conditions nonsensical. In the case of a statutory health insurance whose name shall not be mentioned, whose condition for admission was to be a pensioner, student or working in a technical profession, which was supposed to justify that someone working in a technical profession is innovative and therefore less likely to 'celebrate illness', was overturned years before the equalisation of contributions.
Thus, it is also understandable that adherence to the core values of intelligence has long been at the forefront of Mensa.
The word Mensa is mainly associated by retired students with their university canteen. Also those who have managed to obtain a certificate of matriculation, equivalent to a Mensa card, without a small Latin certificate; for it is simply an old Roman table. The fact that the word stem gives the impression that it contains another Latin word, namely 'mens', i.e. way of thinking, contemplation, is just as obvious as inferring gentlemen and ladies from herrlich and dämlich.
The latest findings that have led to the rethinking are plausible in themselves, if one approaches the matter with reason. After all, such a test only determines the extent to which the test person conforms to the creation of the questions and exercises. And discipline, obedience, frugality and the scenario of passing an examination under time pressure are characteristics that play an important role in social competence, but do not make a statement for the factor 'intelligence'. Waldorf pupils were found many years ago to 'measure' more intelligently in every test - but in fact it was only found that the structure of the tasks was repeated and inevitably led to better results. The same students were always tested, the comparison group in the conventional school system had different students in each test. My wise business teacher at vocational school said at the time: don't trust any statistics that you haven't falsified yourself.
Conclusion: Even the biggest idiot can be highly intelligent - and vice versa. But to reduce oneself as an intelligent human being (or non-primate vertebrate or invertebrate animal, plant, fungus or mineral) to one's mathematical and linguistic reasoning and spatial imagination, i.e. only cognitive characteristics, and to subject oneself to a test to determine these, does not speak for a corresponding emotional intelligence.