Chapter 32

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The violent crack of thunder and the crimson flash of lightning nearby preceded the torrent of tropical rainfall. Paul stood with his fellow marooned pedestrians under a store front canopy waiting for the finish of the frequent but short-lived rainstorm. The normally busy street, now flooded, gripped cars that had pulled over because the rainfall was so extreme wipers were useless. Although the temperature was somewhat cooler from the downpour, the humidity had increased so the level of discomfort remained about the same. Umbrellas could not withstand this volume and intensity so there was nothing to do but wait.

I've seen many of these. It should be over in a few minutes. If not, I'll go inside one of these malls and have a coffee while I wait. It's not far to Lee's apartment but anyone out in this would get drenched. I'll just wait here like these other people.

~~~

Paul was marooned once by a sudden rainstorm near his apartment in New York while on one of his walks to the Columbia University library. He found refuge under a small building in the park nearby. He often went to the library. It was the perfect place for explorations into many complex topics. Sometimes he lost track of time and only left when the librarian announced it was closing. This time, after his unscheduled stop because of the deluge, he continued to the library anticipating a night of discovery even more than usual.

Were there world leaders who had suddenly exhibited traits of super intelligence? Paul became interested in this topic because of his statistical method that predicted superior intelligence of certain inventors. There were many powerful and intelligent rulers throughout history. Most of them were simply born into the ruling family, but there were a few exceptional ones, who were apparently extremely intelligent. A handful of these had no birthright and exhibited their superior intelligence, and ascended to the throne, after an unremarkable upbringing and childhood. I can't find any reason for their surge in intelligence.

Cyrus the Great of Persia (599-530 BCE), for example, became king at forty after the death of his father. He hadn't shown any exceptional qualities and one account even referred to him as dull. Raised by shepherds until ten, he then rejoined his family. , his father, although considered a good king, accomplished remarkably little.

The Persian Empire Cyrus ruled encompassed modern-day Iran, all the Middle East, and extended south to Egypt. Even as he conquered many lands he was admired more as a liberator by his subjects. The old testament of the Bible unconditionally praised him for the liberation of forty-thousand Jews from Babylon. After they returned to their homeland, he supported the rebuilding of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

Cyrus demonstrated his greatness by his policy of generosity rather than repression. His practice of mercy and assimilation solidified his empire that lasted another two hundred years after his death. He was tolerant of religions and cultural differences in the places he conquered. These ideals showed a unique insight into human psychology that was unprecedented.

Stalin, on the other hand, used his intelligence to control and destroy those that opposed him. Born of common parents in 1878 he attended the Russian Orthodox Seminary on a scholarship. He joined Lenin's Bolsheviks when about twenty-one. This revolutionary Marxist movement enlisted Stalin, and he rose to prominence within its ranks.

Lenin appointed Stalin to high office in his government after the Russian Revolution. Upon Lenin's death Stalin maneuvered and murdered his way through the Russian bureaucracy to become General Secretary of the Communist Party. Stalin's brutality was then unrestrained. He led the Great Purge that imprisoned, exiled, or executed millions of enemies with no legal process.

Stalin's intelligence was in full view during World War II. He successfully steered the Soviet Union to first join and then defeat Hitler. This resulted in a huge territory of formerly independent countries in Eastern Europe merging, mostly unwillingly, into the vast Soviet Union. He even outsmarted Roosevelt and Churchill to maintain military control over all the countries the Red army had conquered. These acts illustrated the evil and brutal intelligence that shaped the post-war world for decades.

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