Bonds. The bonds we forge with each other as Mensans, connecting with each other even as we disagree amicably or just share thoughts about the Society to which we all belong, are the strength of Mensa. Those connections are our anchor, our cohesiveness in an otherwise diverse group that celebrates its diversity. Letters to the editor are one means of connecting with each other. Going Forward invites your comments on any issue pertaining to Mensa, including topics that have not been addressed specifically in this newsletter.
Thank you for printing Ryan Marvin's thought-provoking article (June 2004).
I have to take exception not to the article but to the author tagline. I hope it will not take anything away from Ryan's excellent efforts with TeenSIG to point out that it is far from the "first organized effort to bring younger Mensans into active participation in Mensa."
When I joined Mensa in 1972, Greater New York Young Mensa was already going strong. It was headed at that time by Bob Menschel, who says that it was already a couple of years old when he joined in 1969; he doesn't know who the founder was. In other words, organized Young Mensa activity is nearly as old as American Mensa itself. At that time Young Mensa was defined as Ms 25 and under.
Not only did Bob head up GNYYM but he also attended AMC meetings. In those days AMC met in New York every month. He attended informally for a couple of years, and then he actually sat on the AMC as the voice of Young Mensa for two or three years. He also wrote a monthly column in the Bulletin covering YM activity in New York, LA, Boston (the group I founded in 1972, with Bob's encouragement), and elsewhere. A check of the archives would verify this.
So the fact is that Ms in their teens and early 20s have been a much more active presence in Mensa in the past than they are now. I am happy to see the TeenSIG attracting younger Ms such as my son Ethan, and I am even happier to see that their main interest is just in getting together, which to my mind is what Mensa is really about at all levels. I hope someone of Bob's energy, commitment, and leadership will come forward to make the younger set as much a part of mainstream Mensa as it wants to be and as it once was.
Can we look forward someday to having the American Mensa Annual Gathering (AG) in a plain-brown-wrapper city once again? One without any major theme parks or activities to draw attendance from the very real attractions of an AG?
There could, of course, be off-site trips to special places, but they would be organized by the AG Committee and made up of fellow Mensans; the main draw would remain the Annual Gathering.
Or am I just indulging in dreams and the AGs have become merely a vehicle for "doing the town," a convenient excuse to spend a vacation in XX?
Never mind. I have my warm memories of Annual Gatherings which were truly gatherings. I remember San Francisco, Boston, St. Louis, Dall…
Everybody keeps making suggestions on how to run Mensa. I have a much more fundamental question: Why?
We have an obsession with "organization" in America. We form organizations for collective purposes — most of them of dubious nature to begin with, usually for attempting to corner some advantage at the expense of everyone else (such as a labor union, or a trade group, or a farm cooperative — or a nation) — and then we organize the living hell out of it. We want to write bylaws and elect officials and design programs and enact policies and collect dues — and throw as much weight around as possible, until it all gets so complicated and expensive and top-heavy that it collapses of its own weight.
I give you the classic example of Angkor Wat. To express their identity, and to give their society a "cohesive purpose," the Khmers let themselves be suckered into building the world's largest complex of temples. Eventually, as it grew beyond all reason and anybody's control, it occupied so much of the people's time that they had no time left to raise their children or grow crops, let alone go fishing, which was their original national occupation. And it ate up all the capital of the country, until everyone but the priests was bankrupt.
It is now abandoned, overgrown, falling into ruins as tree roots tear it apart. It did not fall from internal dissension. It was not overrun by barbaric enemies. It was not the victim of fire, earthquake or flood. It fell simply because it became a colossal pain in the ass. Disgusted by the burden of it, the people simply walked away — quit working on it, quit contributing to it, quit being proud of it. It died from disgust. Its people made a huge, nationwide act of refusal. They shut it out of their time, their plans, their budgets. It died of neglect, because its people decided it just wasn't worth it.
The fans of organization believe that, if everything isn't organized to the hilt, affairs will degenerate into chaos.
So?
The net effect of chaos is not confusion; it is progress. Organization only impedes progress. This is what the socialists — which is what everyone who advocates organization really is — eventually create: stagnation.
I am totally opposed to Mensa having any "social purpose." What is the "purpose" of life? To enjoy it. To make of it anything you want. But it is impossible to please any two people with any one policy or purpose. Better to leave it all open-ended, vague, totally directionless. People — certainly, intelligent people — will find their own purpose. If you only serve hot dogs, or fried chicken, or seafood, you limit your market and exclude more people than you attract. I believe that life should be a smorgasbord, not a diet. Life should be like Golden Corral [buffet restaurants]: something for everybody; load up your plate as you will.
I am opposed to "social purposes" because I am opposed to altruism. There are more than enough organizations to supply every human need; the world does not need, and probably won't accept, Mensa's being another United Way agency. Personally, I help out my friends, but I am not available to do social work.
I am 100% for the "social club" concept. I want the status of being an M. I want to be able to meet other Ms. I think of Mensa as a network, not as an "organization." I would be not the least bit displeased if they abolished the Bulletin, except for the last third of it, the list of RGs and the directory of SIGs and contact people. …
My idea is to cut Mensa down to size. We are a small association that pretends to be a large, complex organization. As associations go, even 50,000 members is very small potatoes. To keep it going, you need only a five-person committee to decide how to set priorities and spend the money; a director to run the office; a data clerk to run the computer and change addresses, enter and delete members, etc.; and a comptroller to collect dues and disburse funds. An association our size doesn't need — or deserve — anything else. Our dues should be about $35. We should publish a national newsletter, not a slick magazine (any position tends to aggrandize itself by producing more expensive products) — and the Register, in book form and CD; if anybody wants it, he buys it. And local group newsletters. Ad hoc committees can run RGs and the AG.
The goal ought to be K.I.S.S., the opposite of what it is now.
— Dr. Robert M. Strippy
#332218, PMU 174-3
PCC
State Farm, VA 23160
[E-mail for Robert may be sent through Didi Pancake.]