Conversation with Gary Whitehall on Drunks, Castro, Kant, and Capitalism: High-Range Test-Taker
Interviewer: Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Numbering: Issue 26.A, Idea: Outliers & Outsiders (21)
Place of Publication: Langley, British Columbia, Canada
Title: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Web Domain: http://www.in-sightjournal.com
Individual Publication Date: January 1, 2021
Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2021
Name of Publisher: In-Sight Publishing
Frequency: Three Times Per Year
Words: 969
ISSN 2369-6885
Abstract
Gary Whitehall is a high-range test-taker. He discusses: growing up; an extended self; family background; experience with peers and schoolmates; ome professional certifications; the purpose of intelligence tests; high intelligence; the geniuses of the past; the greatest geniuses; a genius from a profoundly intelligent person; profound intelligence; some work experiences; job path; the idea of the gifted; the God concept or gods idea; science; tests taken and scores earned; ethical philosophy; social philosophy; economic philosophy; political philosophy; worldview-encompassing philosophical system; and meaning in life.
Keywords: capitalism, drunks, Fidel Castro, Gary Whitehall, intelligence, Kant.
Conversation with Gary Whitehall on Drunks, Castro, Kant, and Capitalism: High-Range Test-Taker
*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: When you were growing up, what were some of the prominent family stories being told over time?
Gary Whitehall[1],[2]*: The few ancestors I know of were violent and abusive drunks.
Jacobsen: Have these stories helped provide a sense of an extended self or a sense of the family legacy?
Whitehall: Yes. I am a violent and abusive drunk now, too.
Jacobsen: What was the family background, e.g., geography, culture, language, and religion or lack thereof?
Whitehall: My father is half-Scottish; my mother is English. Neither of my parents were religious – at least not while I was growing up.
Jacobsen: How was the experience with peers and schoolmates as a child and an adolescent?
Whitehall: I beat up any kid who disrespected me, and pulled every girl in my class. I couldn’t have asked for a better childhood.
Jacobsen: What have been some professional certifications, qualifications, and trainings earned by you?
Whitehall: Bachelor’s degree in computer science.
Jacobsen: What is the purpose of intelligence tests to you?
Whitehall: To score higher than the other nerds in order to impress women and get laid.
Jacobsen: When was high intelligence discovered for you?
Whitehall: I have always known that I was way smarter than most people.
Jacobsen: When you think of the ways in which the geniuses of the past have either been mocked, vilified, and condemned if not killed, or praised, flattered, platformed, and revered, what seems like the reason for the extreme reactions to and treatment of geniuses? Many alive today seem camera shy – many, not all.
Whitehall: Every generation thinks that it has everything basically figured out, and doesn’t like being told that it was just as dumb and delusional as the previous generations. It’s really that simple.
Jacobsen: Who seem like the greatest geniuses in history to you?
Whitehall: Fidel Castro, who reportedly banged a staggering 35,000 women. The more I ruminate on the deep mysteries of life, the universe, and consciousness, the more I regret not spending that time laying pipe. Lord Castro had the right idea.
Jacobsen: What differentiates a genius from a profoundly intelligent person?
Whitehall: Nothing. Those two things are synonyms.
Jacobsen: Is profound intelligence necessary for genius?
Whitehall: Yes.
Jacobsen: What have been some work experiences and jobs held by you?
Whitehall: Web developer.
Jacobsen: Why pursue this particular job path?
Whitehall: Because it’s relatively easy and pays well.
Jacobsen: What are some of the more important aspects of the idea of the gifted and geniuses? Those myths that pervade the cultures of the world. What are those myths? What truths dispel them?
Whitehall: The biggest myth is that the ability to solve complex logic puzzles is enough to succeed in life or solve real-world problems. It isn’t.
Jacobsen: Any thoughts on the God concept or gods idea and philosophy, theology, and religion?
Whitehall: It seems to me that there are three possibilities as to the origin of the universe: (1) It appeared out of nothing and nowhere for no reason; (2) It created itself; or (3) It was created by something external to itself, leading to an infinite regress. None of these ideas makes a lick of sense – and the idea of a fourth option makes less sense still. Don’t waste your time on such questions. Just drink beer and slay pussy instead.
Jacobsen: How much does science play into the worldview for you?
Whitehall: It doesn’t. Science can’t tell us anything about what exists outside our own minds, since it is nothing more than mathematical (mental) models applied to our internal perceptions.
Jacobsen: What have been some of the tests taken and scores earned (with standard deviations) for you?
Whitehall: I haven’t taken any official IQ tests. I took some of those shitty IQExams tests, though, and scored in the 150s.
Jacobsen: What ethical philosophy makes some sense, even the most workable sense to you?
Whitehall: The Golden Rule (or Kant’s categorical imperative), which is a guard against hypocrisy. If we accept that a person’s moral choices proceed from their beliefs, then by showing that some action contradicts a person’s own belief system, we can demonstrate its “wrongness” on a logical level. For example, a person who is willing to murder others, but objects to his own murder, is labouring under a contradictory (i.e. false) set of beliefs.
Many moral philosophers have tried to make morality objective by linking it to truth, but it seems to me that the Golden Rule already does this.
Jacobsen: What social philosophy makes some sense, even the most workable sense to you?
Whitehall: Good old classic liberalism: every person should be free to do as they wish provided they are not physically inhibiting anyone else’s ability to do the same.
Jacobsen: What economic philosophy makes some sense, even the most workable sense to you?
Whitehall: Retaining a capitalist system, but setting a reasonable limit on the amount of money that a person can accumulate across a lifetime. The resources on this planet are finite, and nobody should have the right to hoard a hundred lifetimes’ worth of money while others are struggling to make ends meet. Besides, allowing companies to grow indefinitely large inevitably leads to the emergence of monopolies (e.g. Google, Facebook, Amazon).
Jacobsen: What political philosophy makes some sense, even the most workable sense to you?
Whitehall: Any system in which power is decentralised. When power becomes too centralised, corruption and incompetence ensue, and there is little to no accountability. This is true of the national media as well as governments.
Jacobsen: What worldview-encompassing philosophical system makes some sense, even the most workable sense to you?
Whitehall: Lift weights, tap dat ass, and always go against the herd.
Jacobsen: What provides meaning in life for you?
Whitehall: I do. My life has meaning because I damn well say it does.
Appendix I: Footnotes
[1] High-Range Test-Taker.
[2] Individual Publication Date: January 1, 2021: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/whitehall; Full Issue Publication Date: May 1, 2021: https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.
*High range testing (HRT) should be taken with honest skepticism grounded in the limited empirical development of the field at present, even in spite of honest and sincere efforts. If a higher general intelligence score, then the greater the variability in, and margin of error in, the general intelligence scores because of the greater rarity in the population.
Appendix II: Citation Style Listing
American Medical Association (AMA): Jacobsen S. Conversation with Gary Whitehall on Drunks, Castro, Kant, and Capitalism: High-Range Test-Taker[Online]. January 2021; 26(A). Available from: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/whitehall.
American Psychological Association (APA, 6th Edition, 2010): Jacobsen, S.D. (2021, January 1). Conversation with Gary Whitehall on Drunks, Castro, Kant, and Capitalism: High-Range Test-Taker. Retrieved from http://www.in-sightjournal.com/whitehall.
Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): JACOBSEN, S. Conversation with Gary Whitehall on Drunks, Castro, Kant, and Capitalism: High-Range Test-Taker. In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. 26.A, January. 2021. <http://www.in-sightjournal.com/whitehall>.
Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (16th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott. 2021. Conversation with Gary Whitehall on Drunks, Castro, Kant, and Capitalism: High-Range Test-Taker.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. 26.A. http://www.in-sightjournal.com/whitehall.
Chicago/Turabian, Humanities (16th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott “Conversation with Gary Whitehall on Drunks, Castro, Kant, and Capitalism: High-Range Test-Taker.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal. 26.A (January 2021). http://www.in-sightjournal.com/whitehall.
Harvard: Jacobsen, S. 2021, ‘Conversation with Gary Whitehall on Drunks, Castro, Kant, and Capitalism: High-Range Test-Taker’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 26.A. Available from: <http://www.in-sightjournal.com/whitehall>.
Harvard, Australian: Jacobsen, S. 2021, ‘Conversation with Gary Whitehall on Drunks, Castro, Kant, and Capitalism: High-Range Test-Taker’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 26.A., http://www.in-sightjournal.com/whitehall.
Modern Language Association (MLA, 7th Edition, 2009): Scott D. Jacobsen. “Conversation with Gary Whitehall on Drunks, Castro, Kant, and Capitalism: High-Range Test-Taker.” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 26.A (2021): January. 2021. Web. <http://www.in-sightjournal.com/whitehall>.
Vancouver/ICMJE: Jacobsen S. Conversation with Gary Whitehall on Drunks, Castro, Kant, and Capitalism: High-Range Test-Taker [Internet]. (2021, January 26(A). Available from: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/whitehall.
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