Science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin, who just passed away at 88 this past January, wrote the famous story The Lathe of Heaven and well as the Earthsea fantasy series, which I read a couple of years ago. Back in 1978 she wrote the short story SQ, which appeared in the retrospective anthology Donald Wollheim Presents The 1979 Annual World's Best SF. What does "SQ" stand for? Well, IQ stands for intelligence quotient, so...
First of all, let me remark that this story is something of a satirical farce about some trends the author obviously noted going on in the society around her. "SQ" tests, designed to measure one's sanity level, are routinely administered around the world...those scoring 50 or higher are deemed insane and sent to asylums. The man in charge of developing and implementing the examinations, Dr. Speakie, is a "psychometrist" who is gradually building his power as a higher and higher percentage of the population fail the test, and the remaining "free" people in the world are increasingly under his control. The story is told from the viewpoint of one of his fanatical assistants, who sugar-coats the disturbing news: the average SQ test scores keep getting higher, indicating that the world is losing its grip on reality...
I have a couple of reactions to this story. One is the notion that you can accurately measure things as complex as people's intelligence, personality types...or even their level of sanity...by administering multiple-choice tests...complete bull, in my opinion. Apparently, Ursula K. Le Guin agreed with my point of view about this and decided to expose its nonsense. The other is related to this: although SQ was written forty years ago, the situation regarding society's addiction to identity politics has only gotten worse. Many of us have had it repeatedly drilled into us as to our uniqueness and, I'll reiterate, incredible complexity. But this all gets thrown out the window when we insist on seeing ourselves as being members of groups that are often...if not usually...very subjectively defined, and with narratives that we're expected to adhere to. I prefer the idea of seeing folks as individuals who have the power and authority to make their own choices in life and to be responsible for those choices...this classification obsession only creates victim classes and robs us of the dignity and accountability so necessary to us as functioning, mature people...
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