BELL CURVE : Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (A Free Press Paperbacks Book)

Rating:
Summary: Ring Them Bells
Review: This is a GREAT BOOK, especially for the way it sparks off discussion of important issues. Check out the strong comments on both sides of the debate in the reviews below.

Murray and Herrnstein had no particular axe to grind and were just doing their work as psychologists, measuring differences in intelligence. They actually went out of their way to avoid controversy by soft-pedalling on the connection between intelligence and genetics. This hasn't saved them from countless ad hominem attacks from people who, quite frankly, are mainly Socialists, Communists, and Black racial supremacists.

I think we all know there are important inherited differences in intelligence and that these have a racial aspect, otherwise civilization, wealth, and progress would have been much more equally spread over the face of the Earth. Many spurious arguments are thrown up like a cloud of dust to hide this obvious fact. One reviewer mentions, "It wasn't too long ago when white slave-owners said it was impossible for negroes to learn to read." In fact literacy rates between Blacks and Whites still remain markedly different as do all other indices of intelligence, be it self-made man, inventor, Nobel prize winner, science PhDs, etc.

We also get the ghetto argument. Blacks are less intelligent because they live in ghettoes. It's the other way round, they live in ghettoes because they are less intelligent. Ask the Jews, the Koreans, the Chinese, other (once) unpopular minorities who faced discrimination when they arrived. They put up with it and got to work exploiting the opportunities that America has offered everyone since 1865.

Another argument against the book is that it is not useful as a tool for discriminating between individuals who might be suitable for a job and those who might not. This was never its purpose. It is designed to explain the intelligence underpinnings of social structure and to suggest that the best and most successful societies will be those composed of people with higher levels of intelligence. Not so much a revolutionary idea as a common sense one. "Race politeness" means that although we all know this, few of us feel comfortable saying or even thinking this.

So ingrained is this PC attitude, that some of the reviewers have sincerely written the most arrant nonsense:
"If Blacks were not so intelligent, not so much would have been done over the ages to suppress them."

The same reviewer also refers to the Black Moors and the Black Egyptians, even though established scientific opinion is that these were White Mediterranean races. If, as such idealists believe, Blacks are superior in intelligence to Whites, how do you explain the sad, pathetic plight of Africa, and don't tell me it was due to colonization by Whites. Inferior civilizations don't colonize superior ones by force. Also, since decolonization living standards in Africa have dropped by half depsite trillions in aid.

Personally, I think the Whites are not only particularly intelligent, but also (sadly) particularly tolerant of other races that are quite obviously seeking to overthrow them in their own lands. Their tolerance against their enemies threatens all the achievements of their great intelligence and civilization.