The Coming Storm

www.fredoneverything.net ^ | 4/29/2004 | Fred Reed

[KC_for_Freedom]

They married each other. Their children tended to be bright. The result has been that the bright tend to live, play, work, and sleep almost entirely with each other.

This is from the article, (I rechecked to make sure he actually said it.)

The premise of the article is that cognitive classes are insulated from one another, do not meet interact or understand one another, and would be at each other's throats if they did.

Now this is in the article too. You clearly are right that the classes do meet and interact. But they stratify over time because they intermarry and have brighter offspring thatn they would if they did not marry in their own class. But so what, we both agree the article does not fit enough of society to matter.

There are enough high IQ who marry out of their group and others who are in the group who don't support socialism, affirmative action, or other liberal causes just because of their IQ.

[KC_for_Freedom]

How many in the IQ range of 60 to 80 are reproducing because the government sends them a check.

Yes, the underclass definitely has the protected status to reproduce, and gains the funding and the judicial protection necessary to gain votes for the underclass. This is not a good well thought out plan. I would not mind having birth control be a requirement while on welfare.

[GOPJ]

.No matter the angst, fear and profundity the cognitive elite's feel, they're still less than 2% of the population. And 2% isn't much. Even less if the "very bright" assume people can learn anything they choose. That assumption will move them right out of the "very bright" category. In other words, many of the bright aren't as bright as they think they are, and maybe the underclass isn't as stupid. Could there be a strange distribution to all this... Fewer at either end, more in the middle? It might look like a bell...

The very bright assume without thinking that people can learn anything they choose. A woman who graduates from Yale in biochemistry takes for granted that if she wants to learn Italian, she can. It will take time and effort but she will have no doubt as to the outcome. New digital camera? She can figure out how to use it without the manual. She is used to gas chromatographs and gene sequencers. Learn PhotoShop? She just does it. After all, it’s only software. She assumes, unless she thinks carefully, that people know history, politics, literature, because she does and everyone she knows does

[GOPJ]

There's also a tendency to move toward the mean. Two bright parents have a greater probability of having a bright child, but not a greater probability of having a child brighter than themselves.

Now this is in the article too. You clearly are right that the classes do meet and interact. But they stratify over time because they intermarry and have brighter offspring thatn they would if they did not marry in their own class. But so what, we both agree the article does not fit enough of society to matter.

[FITZ]

Whatever their color, they share low intelligence, little education, bastardy, and a tendency toward antisocial behavior.

That is where I agree with the article and the author. It's not so much that IQ levels seek each other out but that welfare encourages a certain type of low-class people and encourages many to migrate in from countries that don't offer welfare. We do see a certain type of people making up the bulk of our prison and street thug populations but I think they are more the result of the government handout programs that encourage unwed and teen pregnancies and promote irresponsible lifestyles. Growing up with a simple but hard working father these kids would have a good chance at life --- but growing up with single mother and her series of boyfriends and one night stands moving in and out of the house, these kids don't have much of a chance at anything.

[JasonC]

Nobody has to "marry out of their group". Kids just revert to the mean. The average child of parents with 150 IQs will be smart than the average kid. But will not - remotely - have a 150 IQ. 3 standard deviations above the mean might drag the kids' distribution up 1-2 standard deviations. But not 3.

The smartest are born to parents with intelligence ranging from average to brilliant, probably most to those 1-2 std devs above average (because a small portion of average parents have kids that bright, and there just aren't many parents brighter). It is not - remotely - like IQ "breeds true" like hair color or something. Any more than all the kids of basketball players will be 7 feet tall.

As for your comments about welfare, thankfully it is not up to you. We had ridiculous eugenic nonsense in this country before and we don't need it again. If you want Americans to be brighter on average 100 years from now, convince smart people to end their love affairs with tiny to non-existent families, divorce, abortion, and sodomy.

Oooh, is that a little too close to home? Always easier to make up imaginary vices of the poor to manage via state power, isn't it?

[Dudoight]

I don't see him as off track at all. I think his observations are interesting and quite likely somewhat valid.

[ladylib]

I've known four Mensa people in my life. One was a paralegal who quit college because she was bored, but was satisfied with being a paralegal. Another one never rose above middle management in a human resources department, another one was the company president's secretary -- a real flake and social misfit, and the fourth was a delivery man and warehouse manager.

All underachievers?

[mhking]

“Underclass” is not synonymous with “blacks.”

Indeed.

I can't argue with anything he's got here. Though I'm sure that Charles Barron would "squeal like a pig" if he saw that...[g]

Black conservative ping

If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)

Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.

[Mudboy Slim]

"Many of the insulated bright imagine themselves to be liberal (an arguable proposition), to care about “the people,” and to favor “diversity.” Few I’ll guess have had any contact with the underclass, or even with people who don’t have degrees. They have never been in South Central, never spent time in roadside stores in backcountry Kentucky or hung out with the crackers of Florida. They have never really met even normally intelligent rural people, whom they call “rednecks.” At their parties you do not see bus drivers or cops or factory hands. If they knew “the people” they would not like them. The diversity they ideologically approve are people they viscerally detest. Down inside they must know this: It is why they avoid them. The diverso-elite alliance is a fragile one."

The Effete Elite and the dumb RAT sheeple they propose to speak for...MUD

[cyborg]

I admire Mensa but would never join. The members I've met are a bit *ahem* touched. I already am short a few marbles in my head.

[cyborg]

good post bump

[Paved Paradise]

It's hard to focus with all that stuff floatin' around up there.

[rdb3]

The second factor that the author ignores is the culture of hard work. Less gifted people can surpass more gifted people simply by working harder.

A-HA! There it is, and I have not seen it articulated before on FR.

My late uncle had many clever sayings that were grounded in home-grown common sense. He had a saying that mirrors yours here. He used to say "Want-To will beat Can-Do if Can-Do don't want to." Or, desire will succeed over qualifications if the desirous person really wants to accomplish something.

A.K.A. Sleepy Brown

[cyborg]

Oh heavens if we should start reviving the cult of hard work=achievement.

[rdb3]

Oh heavens if we should start reviving the cult of hard work=achievement.

I'll just take it back to my beloved Fraternity's motto:

Achievement in Every Field of Human Endeavor.

And, obviously, I truly believe that.

A.K.A. Sleepy Brown

[stand watie]

!!!!!!!!

[cyborg]

http://www.deltasigmatheta.org/

The ladies are having their convention in Vegas this year. My sister knows JAPANESE Deltas. If I was back in school, I'd probably pledge again but I'm too old :) and no time for extracurriculars.

[KC_for_Freedom]

Oooh, is that a little too close to home? Always easier to make up imaginary vices of the poor to manage via state power, isn't it?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but I am not at all interested in using the power of the state. I would like to see welfare ended, then what you want, welfare families would look to jobs and self reliance, (giving them help in return for not baring children seems a good bargin, as long as the reproduction would be reversible when they later are not in need of handouts.) It is not an imaginary vice to have sex when you can't affort a family, only when you take steps to actually have the family does it become a "vice" as you call it. But there is nothing "imaginary" about it.

I have no idea how to convince the "smart" liberal community to stop making mascots of the poor, divorced, and single mothers. Likewise the liberal coalition wants the votes of homosexuals and those with a concern that abortion will be made illegal. They have to be defeated politically to get their influence out.

[justshutupandtakeit]

One must distinguish between all taxes and income taxes. Everyone pays some taxes such as sales, social security or property. Already 50% pay no INCOME taxes. This is why the RATS are always complaining about income tax cuts much of their party pays NO income taxes.