Not that you could discern it from the above screed that pretends to masquerade as a news "column," but what Murray did in first the Bell Curve and later in Human Accomplishment was rather clever and decidedly scientific: he proved that factors in your environment affect your intellectual output.For instance, a society that offers both free will and unoppressive political conditions to its citizens tends to invent more than do societies that are more rigidly controlled. Thus, one fully expects to see the U.S. invent more than North Korea.
But Murray's scientific approach flies in the face of todays politically correct "mutli-cultural" crowd, a crowd that pretends that every culture on this planet is just as advanced and "equal" as every other.
So these politically correct ideologues feel compelled to attack Murray, especially when he does touch on race and other hot-button PC issues. When Murray points out that as a race, Whites have more stupid people than any other, *that* point is overlooked. On the other hand, when Murray points out that as a race, that White people have had more recognized geniuses in the past than any other race, *that* claim gets trumpeted as if it had been said in a vacuum.
However, any non-ideologue who reads Murray's works with an open mind will recognize that Murray is simply stating that White people have a greater *variation* in IQ than any other race. They have more stupid people, yes, but also more geniuses.
And so long as Murray's *data* bears out that point, then what he is saying is far from racist: it's scientific.
That fact, of course, brings up the obvious deficiency in the above-mentioned article for this thread: the author attacks Murray personally, but doesn't refute *any* of Murray's extensive data.
And if Murray's *data* is correct, then his points are on firm intellectual ground.