[Chickensoup]

This is the last two chapters of the Bell Curve. I have read them several times over the years and consider them the two most prescient and gently thoughtful chapters on policymaking ever. I am delighted to share them with you. Remember these chapters were written in 1994, almost a quarter of a century ago.

They discuss the two different options afforded to our society, in dealing with intelligence, social connections, and poverty; one being harsh and totalitarian, and the other being inclusive in the best of ways, and highly textured.

I highly recommend reading these chapters. I am delighted to find this website so I can share this with you.

[miss marmelstein]

I guess McConnell and Ryan are at the head of the cognitive elite but they just seem like assholes to me.

[bigbob]

Interesting, but now I am all depressed thinking about how 1994 was nearly a quarter of a century ago...

[deadrock]

Thanks for posting.

[ClearCase_guy]

bfl

[beebuster2000]

great post. read the bell curve a long time ago, had forgotten how prescient it is.

[pax_et_bonum]

Thanks for posting.

[rightwingcrazy]

I don’t the “elite” that run things are particularly bright, just particularly hungry for power. If they were particularly bright, they’d see the emptiness of what they desire.

[SkyPilot]

Charles Murray was physically attacked at Middlebury College last spring.

He ended up having to run for his safety, and a liberal professor helping him was injured.

The most hated chapter in "The Bell Curve" is his analysis of race and IQ.

Statistics are what they are.

What the left doesn't "get" is that Murray has been raising warning flags of the rise of the elite for years, and its effect on society as a whole.

His argument, also, is valid across the racial spectrum.

But it was all drowned out because of the chapter on race and IQ.

[ml/nj]

All this stuff about some cognitive elite.

Is John Conyers part of the some cognitive elite? Is Hillary Clinton? Most of the people in government do not strike me as particularly intelligent, which is probably why they have such difficulty with Donald Trump.

ML/NJ

[Hambone 1934]

Boils down to couple of ideas...Elite have their house negroes( black,Brown,Asian etc) to help do away with the minority groups and the white elite destroy everyone else..Then the white elite get rid of the few house negroes, and they control,own and enjoy the whole damn pie....

[PGR88]

As Herrnstein and Murray predicted, America’s elites, who have taken over more control over peoples lives and the economy, have also created systems that actually reduce financial risk to themselves, while increasing it for others.

[cpdiii]

Much ugly truth that can not be said is in your post.

[P.O.E.]

People are not naturally angelic but self-interested — else, as Publius pointed out, governments would not be necessary in the first place

The difference is between enlightened self-interest & animal passion.

For centuries, man has striven to overcome the latter in favor of the former. The latter, being more powerful and pervasive, is now being used by the elite to climb further into that bubble of detachment.

[chalkfarmer]

He wrote a much more interesting book.
https://www.amazon.com/Real-Education-Bringing-Americas-Schools-ebook/dp/B001E2NXDY

[PapaBear3625]

I read The Bell Curve some years ago, and I agree with much that they say. One thing the authors don't give enough attention to, though, is the genetic principle of Regression toward the mean. Smart people will tend to have smart kids, but exceptionally smart people's kids will be more likely to be closer to average, than to be as exceptionally smart as the parent. Did you know that Albert Einstein had three children? And that his son became a professor of engineering? Not many people know of Albert's kids, because they were nowhere near the ability of their father.

The big problem facing the elites is that IQ is a major determinant of success, but that their offspring are not likely to be in the top 0.1% of IQ. That most of the people who will be in the top 0.1% of IQ will come from the middle class, and will have a competitive advantage over the kids of the elites.

Hence, the determined drive to cripple the educational system which educates the kids of the middle class. Hence the determined drive to import low-IQ serfs who will not be competitors.

[Art in Idaho]

So many important paragraphs in these two chapters. The ones mentioned above have to be confronted if we are to survive as a nation. The low IQ people having the majority of babies will Cloward-Piven us to death.

Many other important points but I was struck with this paragraph:

"This is not the place, nor are we the people, to try to rewrite immigration law. Rut we believe that the main purpose of immigration law should be to serve America's interests. It should be among the goals of public policy to shift the flow of immigrants away from those admitted under the nepotistic rules (which broadly encourage the reunification of relatives) and toward those admitted under competency rules, already established in immigration law — not to the total exclusion of nepotism and humanitarian criteria but a shift. Perhaps our central thought about immigration is that present policy assumes an indifference to the individual characteristics of immigrants that no society can indefinitely maintain without danger."

We have to end chain migration, be very picky about only letting higher IQ skilled people emigrate here and stop Muslim immigration. Call me what you want but it's an objective matter of survival of our Sacred Republic long term.

[Albion Wilde]

I love this part:

Our policy prescription... is to return marriage to its formerly unique legal status. If you are married, you take on obligations. If you are not married, you don't. In particular, we urge that marriage once again become the sole legal institution through which rights and responsibilities regarding children are exercised. If you are an unmarried mother, you have no legal basis for demanding that the father of the child provide support. If you are an unmarried father, you have no legal standing regarding the child—not even a right to see the child, let alone any basis honored by society for claiming he or she is "yours" or that you are a "father."

[Albion Wilde]

Graduate & Professional Degree ping.

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[TheNext]

Blah blah blah.

The cognitive elite would have discovered brevity. Big words do not impress.

[TheNext]

The USA has been in decline since 1913. High IQ is irrelevant once a Mao type President wipes out the IQ class and replaces it with an impoverished 3rd world migration.

It is happening now and it is scary to any High IQ person who is aware. Discussing social solutions is wasteful because it is other directed and out of my control. A self directed approach, only matters, what can I, and like minded, do to survive a socially violent future.