Maybe it was Mr. Peabody! No, wait, he's not from Alaska...
It was an Alaska plate, and I followed it all the way into Washington, D.C. this morning, gritting my teeth all the while. It read:
HIGHIQ
What kind of person puts a message like this on his or her car? It isn’t witty. It isn’t cute. It is gratuitously boastful, immodest, and lacking in humility. The message is very likely to annoy other drivers, as it did me, for its sheer bad taste and arrogance, and because displaying such a message is stupid in the extreme, it is also deceitful. The driver may indeed have an objectively high I.Q., but if so the message is literally true but misleading—-since anyone who would think this fact belongs on a license plate is an prima facie idiot.
Besides…if he’s so smart, why is he driving a 2003 Camry?
Ethics Alarms 
Maybe the driver was being ironic.
I think it actually reads: HI, GHIQ, which are the initials of his four daughters: Genieveve, Henrietta, Imepeldra and Qxzclvmpth.
Would a vanity plate that said “LOWIQ” be ok?
It would have to be irony. A high IQ in DC?
I’m going to get one of those bumper stickers that reads, “My daughter graduated summa cum laude from Berkeley, and is now a MS and PhD”.
(Using Ethics Alarms to brag on her – it’s all true; and I brag on her every chance I get. As if I had anythhing to do with it. It was all her own hard work.)
Bragging on someone else is cool.
I kinda liked the California plate: “6ULDV8”.
THAT’S AWESOME.
But that’s not boasting. Or is it?
Maybe just advertising, or “trolling…”
Unethical? Huh?
Sure: 1. Bad manners 2) Lack of humility and modesty, both ethical virtues 3) obnoxious 4) disrespectful 5) presumptuous.
I didn’t say it was HORRIBLY unethical. Before today, I though vanity plates could be stupid, but mot unethical. Live and learn.
Of course, maybe the driver teaches IQ prep courses, or administers tests, so his license plate is actually advertising and getting people to consider having their IQ tested.
Sure, it could be boasting. It could be a joke. It could be a lie. It could be advertising. Without knowing the true motivation behind the selection, how can it be unethical?
Tasteless is tasteless. Obnoxious is obnoxious. Motive doesn’t matter. If its a misleading advertising, the ethical breach is responsibility and consideration. Is gratuitous and tasteless boasting unethical? Sure—bad taste, bad etiquette, bad character. Is carelessly appearing to be boasting unethical? Same effect—sure it is. Intentional is more offensive than negligent, but neither is good.
Aw, come on Jack. Chill out. Haven’t you got something important to write about? Bernanke putting his private wealth in Canadian dollars? Heavy out of state union and undisclosed other sources of funding for a Wisconsin problem? Legislators leaving the state because they, like spoiled children, aren’t getting their way?
Ok, that tears it—I’m putting this into the Comments rules: when I write about something trivial, I know it, and am usually making a broader point or just a wry observation, and comments to the effect that there are more important things to write about are 1) obvious 2) necessary and 3) in willful blindness to the over 1,300 posts here in less than 17 months, an average of three a day, of which exactly two involve license plates. It least it isn’t about The Mikado.
I will also note, in the upcoming revision, that when everyone knows something is unethical and why, there is no need for me to write about it.
PS: I already was pretty clear about the Wisconsin legislators here: https://ethicsalarms.com/2011/02/20/ethics-carnage-in-wisconsin-the-ethics-grades-so-far/ As for out of state funding to protest a state issue with national implications…I see nothing wrong with it. I do see something wrong with the White House doing it, and that was also mentioned in the linked article.
Wait—now I get it——YOU have that same license plate, don’t you?
Nah, mine says “ILVJCK.”
Now THAT’s a coincidence! So does MINE!!
Several days ago, I spotted a black SUV on the freeway bearing a simple decal. “Spank Me”! As I passed it, I looked aside in curiosity. I only hope that he was driving his girlfriend’s vehicle!!
And I thought that I was the only one who remembered Mr. Peabody.
We will never forget Mr.Peabody.
Indubitably Sherman. Pursonally i think its a grate tag just not my stile. I hav a hi IQ myself. but Jack! Some times a good laugh covers the pain…sometimes, but like the song says “Please don’t laugh at me. Don’t get your plesure frrom my pain” In Gods eyes were all the same.
It is a 2007 Hyundai Sonata limited, not a Camry. However, I could see how you got confused as they look nothing alike, aside from both being vehicles. Very similar emblems on them and they’re basically spelled the same. I suppose you did get the plate itself correct.
This is great, Neil! You sound exactly like the kind of pompous, silly twit that would drive around with a license plate advertising his own IQ. Glad to know my assessment was 100% correct, although I never had any real doubts. Thanks, and I mean that sincerely.