Split between "normality" and relative intelligenc

[Guardsman Bass]

I hope that this is as interesting as the title of this topic appears to be. As I am still a high school student, I was a participant in the March 5-8 National Conference for the Model United Nations program. It was an interesting and intellectually stimulating experience in of itself, but was more interesting(in my opinion) were several of the side effects.

Several of my comrades are relatively normal people-when they are out of conference, they talk about rather normal things, such as food, the other sex, sex, fun, and so forth. However, in conference, they were completely different. They expressed almost everything they said eloquently and intelligently, and showed a marked use of reason and intelligence in their statements and activities. Furthermore, the conversation was far more interesting in my opinion. For example, when I was in an elevator riding back towards my hotel room, I was in the presence of two boys who appeared almost ghettoish in appearance-huge black boys, with the bandanas and jeans(from the conference). However, they were discussing what methods ought to be taken on the successful development of international intellectual property right standards, and both presented(to my relatively ignorant mind) highly intelligent arguments for certain aspects that needed to be incorporated into the resolution they were preparing. This brings me to my question.

Is this reason actually present in teens but suppressed in normal life? Present only in a special group of teens who happen to be strongly overrepresented at MUN due to the circumstances? Or is this sort of intelligence and intellectualism only a mask that they put on, to be discarded when not needed?

[Exonerate]

You're in MUN? Nice. Which conference is this?

In my experiences, most people seemed to act more mature during conferences. However, there were still many idiotic arguments.

People can act intelligent when they have to, but most people probably don't act smarter than they have to. You can fake maturity, but not intelligence.

[fgalkin]

Questions: What conference were you at, what country did you represent, on what committee, and did you get your resolution paseed?
Other than that, I think the reason is quite opposite. You say that the intellectuallism is a mask that they put on. I would say that their "normalcy" is the mask.

As you can probably tell, I, too, am in MUN. I had also attended some elite summer programs, including one at Yale last summer. From my experience, I can say that most people that participate in this kind of thing are the intellectual elite of the country, much more intelligent then your average guy on the street. So, they are largely misunderstood by the general population. So, if they don't want to be seen as "nerds" or "geeks" they have to put on the mask pretending to be justlike everyone else.

I suggest that you actually talk to your friends about issues that transcend the "normal" things. Get involved in a political debate, for example.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Tom_Aurum]

I've felt like Harrison Bergeron my entire life, I assure you. Some of it is supressing of intelligence, attempting to normalize society so that no particularly bright person sticks out. Many kids misdiagnosed with ADHD are just kids who are too intelligent for the classes that they're in. But on the other side, some concepts just aren't applicable to everyday life, and one needs to stick to relatively basic concepts instead of unusable theory.