Serpent » Wed Jul 19, 2017 11:59 pm wrote:wolfhnd » July 19th, 2017, 6:11 pm wrote:I'm mainly concerned here with delayed gratification so will address that in more detail at some future time unless there is no interest.
Well, this is what hasn't been made clear.
What gratification needs to be delayed, and for how long, in order to promote a stable relationship? What has self-control got to do with IQ?
I've already mentioned religion. The most intelligent and best educated segment is less religious in general, and of the self-professed religious, the less clever and accomplished people are more sincerely observant.
So why would not-so-bright people with limited means exercise less restraint in gratifying their desires than clever people with surplus income?
BTW - "economic factors" does not automatically translate to "poverty". I tried to indicate the complex of situations, relationships and social effects that stem from economic arrangements, and these effects are not manifest only in the lower income brackets. It just happens that, at this particular juncture, all of the working and lower middle class are insecure and anxious at the same time, with the middle-middle soon to follow.
I'm going to give you the last word on the economic issues, it is extraordinary complicate and we will never agree.
On the religious issue I suspect that is a recent development. Unless of course you want to argue Newton was not so bright. I would argue that the shift in religiosity is evidence of the ability to adapt and succeed in any environment. That is a characteristic of higher intelligence. Again Nietzsche predicted almost 200 years ago that the masses would be most negatively effected by the death of God. People that can maneuver threw complex social changes are not as dependent on convention as those with limited abstract reasoning.
If you are an atheist I wouldn't give yourself too much credit since science that developed over several centuries made that deduction a lot easier. I would also caution that mythology may not be as simple minded as it first appears. Cultural evolution because it is so defused gives the illusion of progress through the great man theory.