A survey indicated that the Russian born writer Ayn Rand, whose "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged" (I read it enthusiastically at one sitting in college, or maybe even high school) is popular with Mensa and Intertel.
We are in fact an elite.
What if we went on strike?
Who is John Galt?
It was exalted.
Nowadays I play in the shadow of the common man. The laborer provides the material structure of the universe. Those on top must make reforms. "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by James Agee, about sharecroppers, has since become my favorite book.
We ride on the shoulders of the masses.
We must seek the common good.
All the burden is not ours - were it so perhaps we should in fact go on strike - but have we looked at the working class and its labor as exacting and precise? More is expected of us because we were given more. Reforms must come from the elite.
This is is a conversion.
We are not the only ones who are suffering. All humanity is suffering - almost defined by intellect and suffering.
Rand - I liked her - was an intense true believer who trembled in her sincerity. But in fact we are all interdependent - and we are all equal. The shoe shine boy has as much claim to fame as the sculptor - and maybe fame is our special "reward". But I celebrate obscurity instead.
For those who read these lines that "we all stand on the shoulders of giants" are mere pygmies if we don't respect those who carry us.
I seriously doubt that character correlates positively or negatively with IQ. Do you?
We have the opportunity to have some truths "trickle down" from us to the rest of the populace. My wife says "the trickle down theory" no longer holds water. What to do? Will there be reform at the top levels - such as Mensa and Intertel - and will they be leaven for the entire mass?
We are all created equal, we believe, but certainly as it is, some are more equal than others.
A mere carpenter, no doubt a genius in faith, is reckoned to be the savior of masses and elite both, and from him we might get adequate notions of reform.
These reforms have never been practiced yet.
Let's start immediately.
This is not merely for religious people of one kind, but a call for those who follow Mohamed, Moses, and the Buddha to share in the common search for the common good at this time. We need universal kindness. The details can be worked out later.
Kindness is one of a kind.