A Citation to Asimov

A few times in the past few years, I have felt the need to cite the passage in his memoirs where Isaac Asimov explained why Mensa and other high-IQ societies were not useful places for him to spend his time. I became uncomfortably aware that Mensans, however high their paper IQ might be, were likely to be as irrational as anyone else. Many of them believed themselves to be part of a “superior” group that ought to rule the world, and despised non-Mensans as inferiors. Naturally, they tended to be right-wing conservatives, and I generally feel terribly out of sympathy with such views. Isaac Asimov, I, Asimov: Memoir (Doubleday, 1994) pp. 379-381 Asimov was introverted but he had no shortage of thoughtful friends who were kind people with skills and accomplishments. It was Philip Klass alias William Tenn who was disturbed when John Campbell Jr. told him that “I’ve always believed that the Jews are Homo Superior.” Klass had seen a Nazi concentration camp during his wartime service and was…