How smart is your neighbor? Regardless of what you think of him, the odds are fifty percent that he’s smarter than you are … and conversely, fifty percent that you’re the smarter. That’s because of the curve of intelligence from dumbest to brightest as measured by IQ tests, which place the norm of average intelligence at between 85 and 115 (by distribution across the population). On most scales a score of 100 represents the exact middle.

Do you know your IQ score? Most folks don’t. As a general rule, most jobs don’t require IQ tests (nor do most jobs, including most professional jobs, require extraordinary intelligence).  (Note on the chart that virtually all of the professions include members with IQs of less than one hundred … only the medical professions exceed that beginning step, and that only by six or seven IQ points).Likewise, most colleges do not require IQ tests. But if you’ve taken the SAT preparatory to college, you can extrapolate that score into equivalent IQ by a variety of methods outlined on this website (where you may also take an IQ test).

If you’re an ex-GI, even though you’ve never taken an IQ test, you know your IQ within a point or two. The military classification battery, like IQ tests, measures a variety of skills and extrapolates a couple of them into what’s called the GT (General Technical) score, which every GI, walking, riding, flying or floating will remember since it determined your eligibility for practically every school or job available in your service. That score correlates very closely with IQ.

Take a look at this chart showing the distribution of IQ across the population:You’ll notice that fully 68 percent of the population lie between 85 and 115 IQ. Therefore, 6.8 of every ten folks who read this article lie within that range and should derive some sense of satisfaction that they are, in every sense of the word, “normal.” How much satisfaction depends upon which side of the “normal” range your particular score falls. If you fall to the low end of the “normal” scale, 85, you are ineligible for service in the military. If you fall to the high side, 115, there’s practically no profession that is beyond your powers of intellect.

The chart also shows that some thirty two percent are outside the “normal” range, with half being above the “normal” range and half below. The half at the lower end suffer some degree of mental impairment ranging from mild to extreme and the half at the upper end are endowed with extraordinary brain power, ranging from slightly smarter than the average bear to smart enough to fool most of the people most of the time.

So, you may ask, what’s the point? Actually, there are two, perspective and perspicacity, both of which are related to the “g” of intelligence that is the ultimate target of researchers in the area of IQ … and how those two related traits are applied in the art of politics.

“G” is the intangible of intelligence that is thought to explain the fact that a person who tests well on one type of test almost invariably tests well on others, while those who do poorly on one test generally do poorly on others as well.

Readers will note that I placed quotation marks around the word normal above. I did that in anticipation of the usual arguments such a discussion is bound to produce, and I did it because in my experience most situations do not require advanced logic to solve. In fact, most propositions involve the overweening importance of one or more aspects of the question, making the proper response almost unavoidable. Consider this simple lesson, learned at the knee of the best troop leader I ever knew, a man who made five combat jumps over Europe and held some of the nation’s highest decorations, but also a man with hardly any formal education who’d reached the rather exalted position of Sergeant Major mostly on the strength of his common sense. He said, “when you’re faced with a decision, most of the time there will be things you know, things you think you know and some things that you may believe to be true. In every case, you act only on what you KNOW.”

That simple advice will get you through most of the problems you’ll encounter in life. But it won’t help you understand politics, a business in which the principal players are engaged in a highly complex program designed to influence your vote. The old saw is: “How do you know when a politician is lying?” The answer, of course, is “whenever he moves his lips.”

But most Americans believe that they can outperform the polygraph and that they recognize a lie when they hear it. The esteemed Trent Lott, of Mississippi, said as much last night in the orgy of “analysis” that followed the Republican “debate.” He could recognize a lie “by the look in their eyes.” Like President Bush, he believes that the eyes truly are the mirror of the soul.

And the TV analysts, of course (and despite their rather poor powers of political prognostication this last year or so) are even more prescient. They explain that John McCain, for example, “hates” Mitt Romney, or that Hillary and Barack Obama likewise hate one another. In fact, no one but The Shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.

But back to the point. Perspective, particularly in politics, is the ability to put yourself into the head of the person you want to influence in order to discern the factors that influence him and to accurately understand the odds for or against the particular lie, distortion or misrepresentation that’s streaming from his mouth at any given moment. It is the ability to understand not just the proposition itself, but also its genesis.

Perspicacity is the keenness of intellect and shrewdness of mind that enables one to understand the methods, motives and mendacities of our fellow men. It is the small, sharp voice in your head that insists upon reason in argument, demanding fact rather than insinuation and discarding hyperbole and anecdote as the detritus of lazy minds.And, as I indicated above, these two traits are closely related to the “g” of intelligence. So how do I sum this up?

One of the mantras of this website is the following: “People can and do look at the same set of circumstances and yet arrive at completely different conclusions.”

That sounds like a proposition whose solution lies in intellect, in other words, that one side is right and the other is wrong for reasons that the person of average IQ should be able to discern and enumerate. But that conclusion must be wrong.

I know that because neither of the two principal political parties indulges in rhetoric that is designed to persuade persons of “normal” intellect. In fact, closely examined, virtually every political ad you’ll see on TV is designed instead to appeal to those most susceptible to manipulation, those who not only can’t see both perspectives but cannot even discern change from the status quo … those on the bottom range of IQ. So the next time you look at a political ad and are offended by its lack of intellectual merit, consider that it was not designed to appeal to you, but rather to your less intellectual neighbor, who is, as you personally know, dumb as hell.

Consider also the following proposition, which has to do with sentience:  Folks who are dumb as dirt are not aware of the fact.

Please feel free to comment on this article.  And if you’d like to discuss it in detail, please feel free to register with Faded Glory, our associated political forum.