The Ecphorizer

The Mismeasure of Mensa 12
Lottie Fish-Bate

Issue #42 (February 1985)


Lottie bids a snarling farewell to The Ecphorizer



Part Twelve: Making of the Prior World; African Genesis


Military conflicts and political infighting have been of little concern to Mensans. We left our Nazi enemies to themselves. We have always

The only usefulness of males to their governments is their crazy willingness to die for them.

had space enough for all.

[quoteright]Quite a shock, then, to encounter in an instant almost the entire dirty history of humanity. How were we to react to endless chronicles of wars, coups, assassinations, massacres, and slavery? Just as with most John Birch University documents, the Immensans have seized the offensive. They find conflict to be at the heart of all human accomplishment. "Nothing worthwhile can come from sterile conformism," they say. Somewhat similarly, Moderate Mensans find support for their basic position that life and truth are more complex than Fundamentalists can acknowledge. They decry the attempt to categorize everything as white or black, right or wrong. Where tradition is found to be narrow or unfounded, new answers must be sought out.

The Moderate interpretation has to be accepted in most cases by rational people, but on this topic of political power the Fundamentalists have the best of it. Just before the 1967 information cutoff, a great surge of knowledge had revealed the nature of man. Konrad Lorenz, with his studies on aggression, was the most respected of these scientists of the new discipline called ethology. The best literary portrayer of the transformed understanding, however, was Robert Ardrey, in African Genesis. This 1961 book is in itself sufficient vindication of the Mensa Fundamentalist position that men must never be allowed any political role in society, and especially that the military must be subject to political control. Ardrey showed that in all animals (almost without exception), just as among humankind, the males are so instinctually territorial that aggression and status are their preoccupations. Though both Ardrey and Lorenz found most animals to be predominantly defensive rather than offensive, Ardrey cited the research of Carpenter (see African Genesis pages 105-108; likewise, pages 102-105 regarding the lion) with rhesus monkeys installed on an island. Territorial integrity was established among six tribes. However, one tribe embarked on conquest. One superdominant individual was found to be the cause of this aberrant behavior. Thus Fundamentalists are right that Immensans must be denied any political rights. Clearly, the endless wars of history have been due to the various Hitlers, Caesars, Kaisers, Napoleons, and such kings as Louis XIV. Males flock to the standards of these monsters of history, so males cannot be trusted with any influence in politics. The only usefulness of males to their governments is their crazy willingness to die for them. 


With this final chapter of The Mismeasure of Mensa in The Ecphorizer, Lottie is reverting to her old alias of Dale Adams (until she can figure out how to get away with something new). Fan mail and critical queries regarding the interpretation of MoM should be sent to Dale Adams. (Lottie/Dale says that packages will be dumped unopened into the American River.)

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