Genetic Lottery

adevar
3 min readSep 2, 2020

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Studies and empirical evidence have shown that a huge percentage of our personality and IQ is inherited, and both our personality and IQ have an accurate prediction of what kind of person we will be in the future. People with higher IQ and conscientiousness are generally more successful — they earn more, are happier, and do better in school. Furthermore, our inherited brain also suggest what kind of political view we hold, and our childhood also determine our behaviour and ultimately our character. This then begs a few questions: Whether failures in society are predetermined, if we have free will, or even if whether our actions should be held morally reprehensible.

Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, just to name a few, seem to be out of this world talented. From creating an art that have a yearly visitors of approximately 8 million to understanding general relativity and gravity to lighting up the entire world, they unraveled scientific theories and materialized what majority of people use, one can only imagine a world without them. It is evidently clear that these geniuses are extraordinary; they are not only smart, but also hardworking.

Not all hope is lost though, however, studies have shown that personality is malleable but IQ, on the other hand, stay relatively stagnant throughout your adult life. Despite the seemingly wide spectrum of benefits that come along with a smarter brain, it’s not all rainbow and sunshine — higher IQ people suffers more psychological and physiology disorder such as: depression, dysthymia, bi-polar, anxiety, body reacting to stress; coupled with the fact that we inherit all sort of genetic disorders such as: down syndrome, haemophila, fragile X syndrome. Moreover, 15% of the populace have an inherited IQ of less than 85 (15 Standard Deviation) and it is estimated that 1 in every 68 children in the US have autism.

To claim that everyone is equal, and that they can be geniuses, is intellectually disingenuous. People have differences, and we can’t deny that. We have to admit and understand these differences so we can, as a society, create a habitable place, with multifaceted career path for all kinds of people — standardized test for people who are interested in sciences and engineering, a more creative environment artists. Furthermore, acknowledging differences can also allow us to financially and emotionally help predisposed and unfortunate people — donating to charities for people who are handicap to protecting the unfortunate from bigotry.

We can also aspire to be better parents, to raise our kids free from abuse that can have a long-lasting impact on their mental and physical health, to provide them with the necessary emotional and financial need, to encourage them on critical thinking and pursuing their goals, we must equip ourselves with the ability to provide for them, so future generations, and hopefully the generation after theirs, would be a more accepting place for people who are genetically ‘unlucky’.

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