Amen brother AO! I would also call them top 10 reasons not signs!

Have to be more than ten... L.A tv stations... Being stuck in the "time tunnel" ie Aryamehr stuff or Foroozan and Fardin's abgoosht... Cyrus goodies...things like that...

Even Mongolians have higher IQ's than Iranians!

Can anybody name 3 things that have come out of Mongolia aside from Changiz and the Mongolian beef over steamed rice?

I actualy remember reading somewhere that a lot of Koreans are Mongolian in origin. If that's the case, then a lot of good things have come out of there (Samsung anyone?). :-) 

Speaking of Changiz and Mongolians, back in 1987 (when Khomeini was sending young men to be wasted on the Iraqi mines) a college classmate of mine asked me point blank - what is wrong with you IRranians? Why are you so belligerent? Why did you behead two emissaries Changiz Khan sent you? I was speechless!

Dear Inspector-On the issue of belligerence, what I am always amazed about is how the Iranian society has come to value it over the past 36 years. Even the ones who are not overtly pro-IR (or at least act like they're not overtly pro-IR), talk about the hostage taking and "bloodying America's nose" and the various other belligerent acts against the West and Iran's surrounding neighborhood as if it was / is some great accomplishment. And what about all the flag burnings inside Iran? The U.S. killed 6 million Vietnamese for no reason whatsoever. Have you evr seen a Vietnamese citizen burning an American flag the way Iranians have been doing systematically for the past 36 years?  

Let's not forget Griboyedov either (though the Russkies are scumbags, for the most part).

At least we are smarter than Indians and Africans!

But all jokes aside, it is not how big our IQ is, it is how we use it.

We Iranians (and I say we, not they) have a reasonable share of smarts (compared to many other nationalities). But our problem is that we don't use our brains for useful and productive purposes.

We are either too stuck in romanticism (poetry, shaer and kos-shaer) or fanaticism (islamism and communism) or charlatanism (trying to do anything except honest work).

Dear SAM - You nailed it on all fronts. Yes, I should have used "we" instead of "they," and yes, we have cared more about poetry than science, exploration and discovery because, after all, you can write poems in between prayers and naps. Science, exploration, and discovery on the other hand, requires "work" and perseverance, and dealing with setbacks, which are really not things that we are known for.  

Dead Samsam- You nailed it as well brother. Post Islamo-clusterf**k of 1400 years ago, survival and pleasing our overlords became our utmost priorities. Yes, Ferdowsi and Kasrawi tried--so did people who truly believed in the idea of Iranshahr--like Pirooz Nahavandi, Rostam Farrokhzad and Bahman Jazooyeh Raamhormozi, all of whom gave their lives defending that ideal. But then Stockholm Syndrome took over and we became the followers, admirers, and worshippers of "seyyeds," and lost our sense of exploration and discovery. BTW, isn't that one of the things that Hassan Sabbah complained of?  

Dear Amir--I think that Iranians hold the record of attacking, killing, and ransacking diplomats and diplomatic missions. I don;t think any other nation in history has attacked as many embassies and diplomats. Wasn't there also the British ambassador who was raped an killed in Iran also (I think it was during the Savafid or Zan era perhaps?). 

Mehrban jaan. What about discovering medicines for diseases? We didn't have a need for that either?! Or what about the pools of oil on the ground? Did no one in Iran have the slightest sense of curiosity as to what this stuff was? It helps heat homes even in Shiraz and Esfahan. Look--we just have to admit it: we don't have a sense of curiosity. We abdicated our sense of discovery in favor of religion and poetry a lomg time ago. The British have great literature too. Shakespeare, Lord Byron....

PS -For my theory of why the British and other Europeans advanced--and have a higher IQ than us--see my comment below.

Here's one theory on the way human IQ is disbursed. I was actually having a discussion with a British friend, and this was his theory--just to be exact--:

The human race originated in Africa. But then some of us migrated out of that continent. The theory is that the ones who migrated out of the continent were genetically more pre-disposed to risk taking, and also were probably more resourceful (hence, a possible higher IQ). Nut the ones who were risk avrese --or were not resourceful enough to make the journey--stayed behind. Then some of us settled in what today would be the Middle East. Then out of that group, a sub-group who were even more gentically pre-disposed to risk taking, and were even more resourceful (hence, agani, a higher IQ), risked the journey to disprse into what would be today's China or greater China, and Europe. These were the ones who were ready to take on the harsh climate in those regions as opposed to the nice, nap and poetry inducing climate of the Middle East. And we can see that in those populations' behavior later on in human settlements were the same people took the risk of exploring the New World, and Australia (Europeans), and the Far East (Chinese who colonized most of the Pacific). The less resourceful stayed behind in the Middle East--and created shitty religions. :-)

Thank god you only mentioned 10 signs or else it may give heart attack to some of us.

Though AO could counter argue that the fact that we choose to dogmatically perpetuate our tokhmi farhang is indeed proof of our low IQ. And he might be right at that. As I said, I am at a loss at this paradox: We show the signs of high intelligence, and yet we are so fucked in the head as a people. It never makes sense.

Dear Fesenjoon - Thanks for showing up bro! I think that we lack some of the essential indicators of high IQ: creativity, risk taking in hopes of a reward, and innovation. True that we have those who show extraordinary abilities in some disciplines, but that does not in and of itself denote a high IQ. For example, and autistic person can be very good in one subject. But like you pointed out, this is not our biggest problem. I've spent most of my life in the U.S., and my observation is that Americans are not necessarily dumb. They are ill-informed. They have the intelligence, and if they learn enough about a subject they can be pretty good--and lethal--at it.

But all of the above aside, our biggest problem is --again, as you point out--cultural. We have a tendency to be fanatical, dishonest, conspiracy-theory minded and "hezb-e-baad" as my father points out. And te reason why we're hezb-e-baad is because we have learned through centuries of being invaded by various foreign and domestic enemies that this is the best way to survive. 

Dear Mehrban,

Let's not foget what happened to Imam Hossein in that story. :-)

Brothers and sisters.

Dont be fooled by this map which is made by the english people to make muslem brothers look stupid.

 Did you know that the theory of relativity was originaly invented 1200 years ago in the muslem city of esfehaan in iran. that albret einstains real name was Al-Bret Ein-al-stan. And you can guess from his name which religion he belonged to

Brother Seyed Javad - how does one enter a barrel? Head first or feet first?

Brother Javad has a good point. I can't stop laughing. ..... ha .... ha.. ha

it was really funny.