> regarding ppl who live in cities, and whether or not they are more or
> less smart than ANYone or thing who/that lives in the country...

I can't remember the name of the book but it had to do with
intelligence, world populations and global resources over historical
time... one premise that interested me is that people who live in
jungles (not corn fields), such as New Guinea tend, according to the
author, to be individually more intelligent than people that live in
European city states. The thought being that if you are living alone in
the jungle and you are stupid that you are quickly eaten. Result is that
only the intelligent survive, and in an evolutionary manner more brains
develop. Whereas in the city state there is a social network that keeps
dumb people alive, in the process it being difficult to keep them from
interbreeding. Though dumb people in the jungle may get eaten they
survive in cities. In a city state smart people are equally susceptible
as dumb people to contagious deseases such as the black plague. City
states therefore tend to develop dumb down populations and that may be
why solitary intellectual genius is highly valued by groups. If everyone
is smart then nobody is outstanding.

"I see them everywhere. There are dumb people everywhere. They do not
know that they are dumb."

My working definition of intelligence, contrary to any need for IQ tests
and encompassing the now popular venue of emotional intelligence, is the
ability to not extinct oneself. People sometimes argue this point with
me and I shoot them. (Sorry, I could not resist saying that.)

It interests me that I know very few successful people in NYC that can
realistically claim that they were born and bred in NYC. Intelligent
people move to the city for similar reasons as they once went West, ran
after gold in the Sierras or Alaska, or went to sea on whaling ships...
for the opportunity and prospect of wealth. Dumb people I think do not
move around very much and their movement may be dependent on their
degree of dumbness and reliance on a social network. The extended
metaphor of a concrete jungle is a complex one, but the urge to explore
the wilderness of a concentrated built environment is not much different
than the historical Anglo/European urge to exploration of the American
continent. When NASA hands us the myth of spatial exploration, the
journey to the stars, I am contrary enough to prefer for myself a myth
of exploring human dimensions rather than those of a grand vacuum. Just
as deb prefers to hang in a tree and watch wild turkeys, I get a real
kick from hanging out atop an anonymous Manhattan building and watching
people. I also enjoy hanging in trees.

Prior to my current adventures I spent 2.5 years sitting in a
construction trailer inside of a metropolitan bus depot in Harlem
breathing deisel fumes. Despite the poor air quality this was a learning
ground. When I then changed careers it was with a recognition that I
would be able to wander around the city. I love wandering around the
city. I love going to places in the city that few people go to. I
consider most of my days to be an adventure, even shit days. Prior to
prior to that I was deathly afraid of urban centers and did a stint in
the Oregon desert looking for silence. Oddly, the city is where I find
inner silence. I still have my noisy fears and phobias of youth, only I
have learned to mask them in order to appear I hope reasonably
functional.

I was thinking the other day when I first moved to Brooklyn I insisted
on driving a standard shift without A/C. When I began driving around
Manhattan with a standard on hot summer days I began thinking
differently about my relationship to my environment... the fact that I
was hot and pissed off most of the time and could not find anywhere to
park except parking garages was getting to me. I now drive an air
conditioned automatic-shift stealth vehicle adapted to the urban
environment, complete with lettering on a rear window that says, "No
Rear Seat."

Humans cannot live by cornfields and corn bread alone... there is a need
for a diverse variety of vegetation and wildlife. There is a complex
interconnection in our society between the urban and rural. Just as I
try to encourage youthful intelligence, a combination of brains and
frustration, to appreciate the values and variety of the dumb people
around them, the rural population has a variety of dependencies upon the
well-being of urban populations that deserve thoughtful consideration.
Full and 100% sustainable independence from the economic network, as a
few of my corn field bound friends yearn for, is not exactly feasible,
though it is a goal that I am highly sympathetic towards. On the other
hand I am always amazed when I meet a NY'er that does not have a clear
idea where food comes from.

When in NYC avoid eating weeds... though scrumptious they tend to have
high concentrations of lead.