The Sole Sign Of Intelligence
By Mitch Berg
I was listening to MPR last night, and caught an episode of “MPR Presents” that reprised a speech by the honorable Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, New Jersey. Mayor Booker has apparently had good results running Newark, a city that is one of America’s longest-running punchlines due to its blight, violence, corruption, incompetence, and history of crime both organized and random.
Booker is a Democrat, Afro-American, and in many ways from the same model as President Obama; from upper-middle-class roots (his parents were IBM executives), and a former “community organizer” (spending a few years living in one of Newark’s projects, and several months in a motor home which he’d park at drug-traffic-prone intersections around the city).
Unlike Obama, he’s actually had some substantial effect on his city. Crime has fallen under his administration, and after hiking taxes in the first year of his term, he’s held the line on budgets and spending since then. He’s far from the most profligate liberal in New Jersey public life; like Barack Obama, he was elected to his biggest office to date in 2006; one might be forgiven for wishing that if the Democrats had to pick a not-overly-experienced candidate for pure camera value, they’d picked Booker instead of Obama. This is, by the way, a statement against interest for me; he’s a liberal. But one should give credit where it’s due, while working to do better still (and noting that it was a Republican, Brett Schundler, who first showed that a corrupt Jersey cesspool could have potential, in Jersey City in the nineties).
Booker’s also a highly edumacated person, for those of you for whom paper credentials obtained before age 27 are important; Booker has bachelor and masters from Stanford (where he became pals with liberal shrieking head Rachel Maddow), a Rhodes Scholarship to Queens College at Oxford, and a JD from Yale. He was also an all-Pac 10 football player at Stanford.
And as I listened to him speak, I was reminded of the great media meme from eight years ago, when waves of America’s pseudo-intelligent tittered like snarky eighth-grade girls when George W. Bush pronounced the word “Nuclear” “NOO-kyu-lar”. This, the born-again mean girls declared, was a sure sign of stupidity.
Anyway – I listened, interested, as Booker, the highly-educated, very accomplished mayor of one of America’s most intransigently-difficult cities, spoke about a meeting with Colin Powell. Booker asked Powell what was the greatest threat facing America. Was it terrorism? Poverty? Income imbalance? Was it…
“NOO-kyu-lar proliferation?”
Wow. I guess he’s really not only an idiot, but white trash to boot.
March 8th, 2010 at 10:17 am
I had a chuckle at the ‘paper credentials before age 27’ line – were you thinking of me (at least in part, I hope) LOL?
All those impressive degrees indicate to me not only academic achievement, but also that Booker and Obama finished what they started, and did so beyond minimal success to boot. They stuck with something for more than a year or two.
Success academically that not only better prepared them for what they did after graduation, but which was part of a pattern of such success, not failure.
You mentioned not one, but 2 Rhodes Scholars, Mitch.
Those prestigious scholarships are not only given for academic accomplishment but for other criteria in conjunction, that are significant beyond ‘paper credentials'(my emphasis added):
“literary and scholastic attainments;
energy to use one’s talents to the full, as exemplified by fondness for and success in sports;
truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship;
moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one’s fellow beings.”
I didn’t hear the broadcast you reference, but perhaps Booker was just using the pronunciation that Powell had become used to in the Bush administration, as a courtesy. Or maybe it was an inside joke, noting that many Americans, and more than a few of the citizens of our allies, wondered if Bush having access to power he couldn’t pronounce dd(one of many such words) was a significant threat.
After all, Bush was no Rhodes Scholar…on any count.
March 8th, 2010 at 10:33 am
I had a chuckle at the ‘paper credentials before age 27′ line – were you thinking of me (at least in part, I hope) LOL?
You’re just the latest of many.
All those impressive degrees indicate to me not only academic achievement, but also that Booker and Obama finished what they started, and did so beyond minimal success to boot. They stuck with something for more than a year or two.
Well, it means they can gauge their own enlightened self-interest. Compare and contrast the scenarios:
1. A 16 year old child of two powerful execs, who grew up amid elite corporate culture, deciding to do whatever it takes to get the attention of admissions committees (grades, football, being Afro-American) in exchange for the most important fact of an Ivy League education; access to the alumni directory. Good on ya if you have that kind of background and motivation at age 16!
2. Someone from a very obscure background who has improbably vaulted to prominence, and faces two years of being badgered by vindictive hamsters (funded by out-of-state money, no less) that will paralyze all one’s efforts.
Sure, you can compare them; I hope you don’t get a backache from the logical gymnastics it’ll take.
Success academically that not only better prepared them for what they did after graduation, but which was part of a pattern of such success, not failure.
Right. Because Ivy Leaguers never turn out to be stupid, hidebound, compacent, arrogant or smug.
Sorry, DG. Given a choice between a 45-year-old that’s still bragging about having gone to Brown, ana 45-year-old who’s managed a business, raised kids, had some twists and turns in life and learned what real life is all about and developed that sense of humanity that comes from having actually had to fight for success, rather than gotten it from an alumni directory? All other things being equal, I’ll take #2 every time.
I didn’t hear the broadcast you reference, but perhaps Booker was just using the pronunciation that Powell had become used to in the Bush administration, as a courtesy.
I kid you not, DG. My mouth is hanging open – or was, anyway. It took me a moment to recollect my thoughts. That may have been the biggest reach since Voyager passed Pluto.
Or maybe it was an inside joke, noting that many Americans, and more than a few of the citizens of our allies, wondered if Bush having access to power he couldn’t pronounce dd(one of many such words) was a significant threat.
And an even bigger reach!
Go ahead and listen to the show. Find any piece of evidence – heck, even the slightest bit of context – that would lead one to that conclusion.
Booker was speaking to the Westminster Forum, a fairly tony institution presented to the intellectually up-market (or so they tell themselves). ‘
Sorry, DG. Doesn’t pass the stink test.
After all, Bush was no Rhodes Scholar…on any count.
No, but he had better undergrad grades than former Sen. Bill Bradley, who was. And better than Algore, who was supposedly the smart guy.
For the record: Unless one is an engineer, doctor or scientist, paper credentials have a shelf-life in determining worth, intelligence and capability of about five years. After that, it’s all about the track record; ones degree is just a wall decoration.
March 8th, 2010 at 10:37 am
moral force of character
Let’s not forget that Bill Clinton was a Rhodes Scholar. Just sayin…
March 8th, 2010 at 10:53 am
And Algore dropped out of divinity and journalism schools before becoming a lawyer.
March 8th, 2010 at 11:05 am
So does it count if the business is a perennially underachieving Texas baseball team and you’re the front-man for a bunch of your dad’s friends?
March 8th, 2010 at 11:13 am
Do the Waltons take way too long to say good night?
March 8th, 2010 at 11:17 am
So does it count if the business is a perennially underachieving Texas baseball team
No. Because he went to Yale and Harvard! And as DG has told us, the mere presence of an Ivy League degree shows that you’re dealing with someone who’s better than all us mere peasants.
Bow before them!
March 8th, 2010 at 11:20 am
Not as long as the Palins.
Piper: “Goodnight Track, goodnight Mama, goodnight Willow!”
Sarah: “Goodnight Piper, goodnight Bristol!”
Bristol: Goodnight Mama, goodnight Tripp!”
Trig: “Hhhhhrrrrph rarrraaaahhhh…”
March 8th, 2010 at 11:25 am
one can only imagine the contempt and disgust DG must feel for people like Bill Gates.
March 8th, 2010 at 11:26 am
{{facepalm}}
March 8th, 2010 at 11:29 am
Trig Omar Minaya: “Hhhhhrrrrph rarrraaaahhhh…”
Fixed it for ya, Clownie!
March 8th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Can we find some blind person to mock too? After all, they can’t read this witty repartee’.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:50 pm
DG, you don’t have to take this crap, you have a lot classier of friends to which to converse. Heh heh heh.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Now, now, can we really fault angryclown for picking on someone in his own mental “weight-class”?
March 8th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
(DG)”I didn’t hear the broadcast you reference, but perhaps Booker was just using the pronunciation that Powell had become used to in the Bush administration, as a courtesy.”
(Mitch)I kid you not, DG. My mouth is hanging open – or was, anyway. It took me a moment to recollect my thoughts. That may have been the biggest reach since Voyager passed Pluto.
Change that hanging open mouth to a smile, dear friend, it was meant in jest, not seriously.
KR, I consider Mitch to be as classy as anyone I know, any day; I don’t need anyone classier to enjoy conversation. That reflects the way you and Swiftee think; not my way of enjoying people. (project much?)
March 8th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
DG wrote:”Success academically that not only better prepared them for what they did after graduation, but which was part of a pattern of such success, not failure.”
Mitch wrote:”After that, it’s all about the track record; ones degree is just a wall decoration.
I think the two quotes suggest we are mostly in agreement Mitch, that a degree alone is not important, it is just one factor or facet to consider.
I’ve never ever suggested otherwise, and as to your other examples….all I can add is that you have never known me to be other than encouraging of your efforts and aspiration, and to be enthusiastic in cheering your successes.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
This list of IQ-vs-occupation provides food for thought. Not really any surprises, but its neat to know that the relationship has been documented.
http://www.woosk.com/2008/11/list-of-iqs-by-profession.html
One should always be wary of people who make judgments regarding intelligence but otherwise stay away from the subject.
March 8th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
AC makes fun of someone with downs syndrome. Doesn’t get much classier than that. Isn’t that considered hate speech by some on the left?
March 8th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Nah. Al Gore made a famous quote about “extra chromosome conservatives”. Lefties are just the most compassionate, sensative people that there is.
March 8th, 2010 at 5:18 pm
“Extra chromasome conservatives.” Angryclown likes! Fits you wacky Mitchketeers perfectly!
March 8th, 2010 at 7:34 pm
tolerance is to be preached on the left but not practiced.
March 8th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
“Extra chromasome conservatives.” Angryclown likes! Fits you wacky Mitchketeers perfectly!
Here come the death panels!
March 9th, 2010 at 10:45 am
The road to hell is paved with tolerance.
March 9th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Angryclown likes!
Of course he does. Nothing like mocking Downs Syndrome victims to bolster the old self esteem.