A Citation to Asimov

A few times in the past few years, I have felt the need to cite the passage in his memoirs where Isaac Asimov explained why Mensa and other high-IQ societies were not useful places for him to spend his time.

I became uncomfortably aware that Mensans, however high their paper IQ might be, were likely to be as irrational as anyone else. Many of them believed themselves to be part of a “superior” group that ought to rule the world, and despised non-Mensans as inferiors. Naturally, they tended to be right-wing conservatives, and I generally feel terribly out of sympathy with such views.

Isaac Asimov, I, Asimov: Memoir (Doubleday, 1994) pp. 379-381

Asimov was introverted but he had no shortage of thoughtful friends who were kind people with skills and accomplishments.

It was Philip Klass alias William Tenn who was disturbed when John Campbell Jr. told him that “I’ve always believed that the Jews are Homo Superior.” Klass had seen a Nazi concentration camp during his wartime service and was disturbed. “It’s racism. And at the moment I don’t want to hear any- I can’t live with any kind of racist formulation.” (Nevala-Lee, Astounding, p. 366).

In his debate with Elie Wiesel, Asimov made very clear that he thought racial or religious nationalism was folly, and just lead to the persecutors and persecuted switching places.

I miss Isaac Asimov, and I miss the America that created him.

Further Reading

Justin Clark, The Anti-Elitist Intellectualism of Isaac Asimov, 29 April 2020

Jay Gabler, What to Make of Isaac Asimov, Sci-Fi Giant and Dirty Old Man?, Literary Hub, 14 May 2020

(scheduled 25 August 2026)