John Droz Sep 26, 2025 @ Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues
I’ve had an interesting — and somewhat revealing — relationship with Mensa and Mensa members. I’m sharing this brief version with you…
Mensa is an international organization of people who have high IQ. To join an individual has to score in the top 2% of a certified IQ test. I had done that and decided to try out the organization.
My hope was that:
- members would be interesting, engaging, critically thinking people
- who were actively involved in important societal issues (energy, healthcare, education, etc.), and
- in creative ways.
So I applied, was accepted, started paying dues, and got their monthly magazine (Mensa Bulletin). I was assigned to the Syracuse, NY chapter.
I was disappointed in the magazine, as I found very few articles to be of interest. It seemed to me that many were vanity pieces about some obscure interest a particular member had. I saw very few that were constructively and creatively addressing societal issues.
I was unable to attend any Mensa Chapter meetings as the closest to me were 100± miles away. I did have a few phone chats with some members in my chapter, but they did not lead to anything productive.
After several months, I decided to take the initiative and sponsor a Mensa party at our lakefront home in the Adirondacks — a premier spot if I say so myself. (See a pix from our driveway, below. We were on a beautiful peninsula and had 465 feet of shoreline on Brantingham Lake, plus a nice boathouse.)
This did strike a chord as over 30 Mensa members showed up (many from a hundred miles away). Although I didn’t know any of them, most of them already knew other members. I arranged several things (boat rides, a great meal, etc.) to get people introduced and to socialize. We had a beautiful, fun Summer day, and the get-together lasted about 6 hours.
Unfortunately, the main reason for my taking a lot of time and trouble to do this did not pan out. I did not find a single person who met the three basic expectations I had (see above) for these highly intelligent people.
A few months later, I decided to stop paying dues, as this was not fruitful.
Some Lessons Learned —Some of my takeaways from being a Mensa member are that high IQ does not assure that a person:
- is a critical thinker,
- has wisdom,
- is interesting,
- is a good communicator, etc., etc.
All in all, I’m glad I tried out this experiment, as (good scientists know this) even failed trials should be illuminating…
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