In the vedic varnas, the brahmanas are the smartest of all the four groups in society. However, they don't rule the people, nor do the hard work. The brahmans are responsible for the priestly or advisory duties in society. The kshatreyas are in charge of the executive and enforcement work. For busines and mercantile work, the vaishas perform them. The rest of the hard work is given to the sudras.
So in this system, everyone benefits for the sake of forming a society or a community. Anyone who doesn't fit in the system becomes a chandala, or the "untouchables". --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "Rick Archer" <r...@...> wrote: > > by Isaac Asimov > What is intelligence, anyway? When I was in the army, I received the kind of > aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100, scored > 160. No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that, and for two hours > they made a big fuss over me. (It didn't mean anything. The next day I was > still a buck private with KP - kitchen police - as my highest duty.) > All my life I've been registering scores like that, so that I have the > complacent feeling that I'm highly intelligent, and I expect other people to > think so too. Actually, though, don't such scores simply mean that I am very > good at answering the type of academic questions that are considered worthy > of answers by people who make up the intelligence tests - people with > intellectual bents similar to mine? > For instance, I had an auto-repair man once, who, on these intelligence > tests, could not possibly have scored more than 80, by my estimate. I always > took it for granted that I was far more intelligent than he was. Yet, when > anything went wrong with my car I hastened to him with it, watched him > anxiously as he explored its vitals, and listened to his pronouncements as > though they were divine oracles - and he always fixed my car. > Well, then, suppose my auto-repair man devised questions for an intelligence > test. Or suppose a carpenter did, or a farmer, or, indeed, almost anyone but > an academician. By every one of those tests, I'd prove myself a moron, and > I'd be a moron, too. In a world where I could not use my academic training > and my verbal talents but had to do something intricate or hard, working > with my hands, I would do poorly. My intelligence, then, is not absolute but > is a function of the society I live in and of the fact that a small > subsection of that society has managed to foist itself on the rest as an > arbiter of such matters. > Consider my auto-repair man, again. He had a habit of telling me jokes > whenever he saw me. One time he raised his head from under the automobile > hood to say: "Doc, a deaf-and-mute guy went into a hardware store to ask for > some nails. He put two fingers together on the counter and made hammering > motions with the other hand. The clerk brought him a hammer. He shook his > head and pointed to the two fingers he was hammering. The clerk brought him > nails. He picked out the sizes he wanted, and left. Well, doc, the next guy > who came in was a blind man. He wanted scissors. How do you suppose he asked > for them?" > Indulgently, I lifted by right hand and made scissoring motions with my > first two fingers. Whereupon my auto-repair man laughed raucously and said, > "Why, you dumb jerk, He used his voice and asked for them." Then he said > smugly, "I've been trying that on all my customers today." "Did you catch > many?" I asked. "Quite a few," he said, "but I knew for sure I'd catch you." > "Why is that?" I asked. "Because you're so goddamned educated, doc, I knew > you couldn't be very smart." > And I have an uneasy feeling he had something there. >
