Keith,
You wrote:
Jewish Americans predominate at the highest levels in all
American
institutions where mental ability counts -- academe, art and
entertainment,
media, civil service, politicians, business people. There's no
need to be a
conspiracist or to ascribe bad motives to most of them (they have
their bad
apples as all ethnic groups do) to say that that's where they
almost
automatically end up by sheer brilliance and respect for
scholarship.
I wish I could be as optimistic as you. Tonight on TV there was talk
about there being 10 liberal professors in academia for every
conservative one. They felt that there was a bias against conservatives.
If you take this a step further, the syllogism could be that there are a
lot of Jews who are professors; there is a liberal bias in universities;
therefore, there are too many Jewish professors.
As the Bush gang moves closer and closer to facism, I can see this as
evolutionary.
Bill
On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 21:44:51 +0100 Keith Hudson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
writes:
> Hi Lawry,
>
> At 13:12 17/09/2003 -0400, you wrote:
> >Fascinating, Keith. How do you see, in terms of complexity and
> systems
> >capacity, the effects of broad immigration into the United States?
> >
> >Cheers,
> >Lawry
>
> Nice of you to say the above, but it may be that you're not going to
> like
> my reply. In view of the vitriol I received once before, I resolved
> never
> to mention the subject again directly on FW. But now you've asked
> me, I
> will. I'm going to talk of IQ. Bear in mind, however, that I am much
> in
> agreement with those who criticise IQ tests as being highly
> selective and
> artificial. That's as may be, but also bear in mind that they
> correlate
> highly with success in the same modern western civilisation which
> produced
> those IQ tests. They may be self-referential but they bear upon the
> sort of
> civilisation that, seemingly everybody else in the world wishes to
> aspire
> to. If anyone wants to criticise IQ tests then they'd better also
> criticise
> western society -- and ruthlessly, too -- and they'd better supply
> an
> alternative -- and a workable alternative, too.
>
> Secondly, bear in mind that nothing has received quite as much flak
> as IQ
> testing. But, by and large, it has stood up to it. It is, without
> any doubt
> at all, mostly (70%) to do with the genes that are involved in the
> development of the individual brain architecture and only 30% with
> environment. Thirdly, traditional IQ tests correlate well with
> Wechsler
> tests which are as culture-free as tests can be. Fourthly,
> traditional IQ
> tests correlate well with mental reaction times from the simplest
> possible
> procedures which any person -- even from the depths of the Papuan
> jungle
> could take with ease.
>
> America had a tremendous amount going for it by the 1870s or so -- a
>
> sufficient technology infrastructure mainly acquired from England and
>
> Europe, wide open spaces, lots of resources, a temperate climate
> with
> decent soils, long coast lines for trading opportunities, etc. It
> could do
> nothing else but do well. With hardly any effort it couldn't fail to
> be a
> major power in the world. It needed more people and it opened its
> doors to
> the poor and oppressed of Europe (so long as they didn't carry TB --
> those
> who had it were sent back immediately on the same ship that brought
> them).
> By accident America cropped into the most intelligent people in
> Europe, the
> Jews, who had had enough of constant persecution and pogroms for
> centuries.
> Almost more than any other people in the world, and probably
> equalled only
> by the Chinese, they have respected scholarship. The one thing that
> any
> Jewish parents wanted more than anything else was for their daughter
> to
> marry the best Torah scholar in their neighbourhood. He might not be
> any
> use for the family business but he'd likely produce a bunch of
> bright
> grandchildren who might be. Those immigrants produced as hard a
> working and
> as intelligent a work force as any that could be imagined for a
> young
> nation. It was their children, born in America that did more for the
> work
> ethic and success of America, particularly in New York and the big
> cities,
> up to about the 1930s as any nation could have received.
> Furthermore, they
> were then followed by a smaller but even more intelligent
> consignment of
> Jewish scientists, philosophers, financiers and artists -- many of
> them
> geniuses -- who were then being perscuted by the Nazi regime in
> Germany and
> other to-be occupied countries in Europe. I needn't mention any of
> these --
> they are household names.
>
> So, to the mean IQ of 100 of American whites at around 1880 (that
> is, much
> the same as the average European) a crop of a couple of million or
> so Jews
> of probably a mean IQ of 106 or slightly more (I'm guessing)
> followed by a
> couple of hundred thousand or so of IQ 130+ (I'm guessing) and we
> have the
> makings of a Jewish population in America of about 6 million with a
>
> reliably tested mean IQ of 110 today (and some tests suggest an IQ
> higher
> than this). (This is a shade higher than the Chinese diaspora of 50
> million
> in south-east Asia with mean IQs of about 105.) Now an average IQ
> of 110
> compared the white American average of 100 doesn't sound terribly
> significant, but it certainly is when you look at the upper tail of
> the
> distribution because there you will find twice or three times the
> number of
> people at the 130+ level which is where *significant* creativity
> starts.
>
> So look at what happens at the highest institutions of learning (and
> here
> we can throw in some Asian-Americans, too). At Harvard in the late
> 1990s,
> 20% of the undergraduates were Asians (which comprise about 2% of
> the
> population), and about 30% of the undergraduates were Jewish
> Americans
> (which also comprises about 2% of the whole population). The other
> half of
> the intake were made up from the remaining 94% of Americans.
>
> Jewish Americans predominate at the highest levels in all American
> institutions where mental ability counts -- academe, art and
> entertainment,
> media, civil service, politicians, businesspeople. There's no need
> to be a
> conspiracist or to ascribe bad motives to most of them (they have
> their bad
> apples as all ethnic groups do) to say that that's where they almost
>
> automatically end up by sheer brilliance and respect for
> scholarship.
> (Also, just to mention Asians again, Asian-born and Asian-Americans
> write
> 70% of the papers in the top physics and engineering journals. Jews
> tend to
> be verbally dominant [left-brain], while Asians tend to be spatially
>
> dominant [right-brain].)
>
> I ascribe the success of American business and science in the second
> half
> of the 20th century as very importantly due to the immigration of
> European
> Jews into America.
>
> The mean IQs of Black Americans and Hispanics are 85 and 92
> respectively,
> and the mean IQ of Americans as whole (all colours) is 98. Almost
> certainly, however, if the immigration of Hispanics continues apace
> then
> the mean IQ will decline from 98 -- according to the rate of
> immigration.
> And that's where I must leave it for lack of further information. I
> don't
> know what the differential birth rates are between American blacks
> and
> Whites, nor the immigration figures or birth rates for Hispanics.
> (I'm not
> American and I'm not terribly knowledgeable about IQ to be
> especially
> motivated to research further, though I'd obviously be interested to
> know
> the data.)
>
> In conclusion, I'll mention one more point which I think are
> important. I
> am beginning to think that traditional IQ -- that is the measurement
> of
> mental skills and, importantly, rapidity of mental reflexes is not
> in
> itself overwhemingly important. As mentioned to Ed, there is some
> evidence
> now that frontal lobe development takes place over a much longer
> period
> than childhood and the frontal cortex is not so much concerned with
>
> specific skills but with the timely application of skills --
> patience,
> persistence, creativity, emotional control . These, I suggest, are
> even
> more important than IQ ability alone. This also fits in with what
> some
> economists are now saying. They are now ascribing more importance to
> the
> contribution of culture upon the economic success of an ethnic group
> or
> nation. And this is under more direct political control than "raw-IQ"
> ever
> was. If there is a real respect for scholarship within a culture
> then it is
> more likely that the frontal lobes will develop more satisfactorily
> than in
> one without discipline or application of scholarship. In time, this
> will,
> of course feedback positively to the selection of high levels of
> the basic
> IQ of the rear cortex -- as was obviously the case of the Jews of
> central
> Europe from about 1400 onwards who found partners for their children
> with
> great care (as many orthodox Jews do know, of course). Modern Jews
> are also
> the first into eugenics by a persistent campaign of steadily
> eliminating
> the dreadful Tay-Sachs Disease from their gene pool.
>
> I'm afraid I haven't touched upon systems complexity in America, but
> you
> can draw your own conclusions, I think.
>
> Keith
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Keith
> Hudson
> >Sent: Wed, September 17, 2003 12:42 PM
> >To: Ed Weick
> >Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Subject: This sceptred compost heap (was Re: [Futurework]
> Education
> >
> >Ed,
> >Thanks for this. I've read three different summaries of this same
> OECD
> >report this morning!
> >I've just come back from a dogwalk and still dwelling on what I
> wrote
> >after sending you my previous posting. What was occurring to me is
> that
> >the reason for a number of the arguments we have is that our
> societies are
> >much more different than we might imagine -- or at least I might
> imagine
> >anyway. Time and again, I describe things going on here and I get
> the
> >impression from some of your slightly nonchalant responses
> sometimes that
> >you might be thinking that I am exaggerating. I also get the
> impression
> >that you live in a much more laid back -- indeed much happier and
> less
> >stressed -- society than here. Hitherto, I've regarded the
> difference as a
> >personality one. However, during the dogwalk -- and I hope you
> don't think
> >I'm being patronising here -- I think our society is more complex
> than
> >yours because we have so many layers of history. Please don't think
> I'm
> >trying to show off -- but consider. We were building quite complex
> stone
> >buildings at the tip of Scotland and in the south of England before
> the
> >pyramids were built. By 1,000BC we had probably the most complex
> bronze
> >technology in the world (apart from China's), using tin from
> Cornwall and
> >copper from north Wales, with, correspondingly, a very advanced
> mining
> >technology (scores of tin mines stretching for miles under the sea
> bed in
> >Cornwall and over 50 miles of recently discovered tunnels in north
> Wales
> >from that date -- made with bone and stone tools), and with
> significant
> >manufacturing areas somewhere in between (not yet discovered) to
> actually
> >make the bronzes (of different blends for different purposes) and
> then
> >trading the products over thousands of miles from the Baltic
> through to
> >the Mediterranean. Then we've been invaded by the Romans, and the
> Saxons,
> >and the Vikings and Danes, and the Normans with their advanced
> feudal
> >system followed by the landowning classes. We were at the back-end
> of the
> >Mediterranean Renaissance but one of the first into long-distance
> trading
> >with Asia and big trading companies, the first into the Western
> Scientific
> >Enlightenment and then the Industrial Revolution, and the first
> into the
> >computer revolution. We are the third/fourth largest exporting
> country in
> >the world -- not of products (we're mined out of almost everything
> we ever
> >had by way of resources), but of a variety of services. In short,
> we
> >probably have the most mature job and social structure of anywhere
> in the
> >world. We live by our wits. We may not have the sheer mass,
> momentum or
> >technological products that the Americans have got but I think we
> lead the
> >world in the acquisition of problems, strains and stresses from all
> this
> >historical/technological development. We're a well-rotted compost
> heap,
> >showing extremes of anything that can be discussed in terms of job
>
> >structure and society. In addition, we're also geographically small
> enough
> >to have started the most comprehensive welfare, educational, social
>
> >services, health and transport services in the world and now we're
> the
> >furthest advanced in showing that they're breaking down -- that the
>
> >welfare society is absolutely cram full of problems and we're
> showing them
> >all in abundance, so much so that even a Labour government is
> trying to
> >privatise as much as it can get away with (albeit in more cunning
> ways
> >that Thatcher did). The only other country which has had such a
> complex
> >history as ours, running through the whole gamut of every type of
> economic
> >and technological development is China. I cannot think of any other
> with
> >such a varied experience and with so many historical residues which
> are
> >still fermenting away.
> >
> >I'm very probably over-egging the pudding (once again without
> wishing to
> >be patronising in any way at all) but, in comparison, Canada's (and
>
> >America's) social, economic, historical, cultural problems are
> somewhat
> >simpler than ours. I'm not suggesting in any way that you are
> personally
> >naive, but I think that your problems can be stated (and solved) in
> much
> >more simplistic terms than could be done here. However, I believe
> that
> >many of the trends and problems here in England that I am writing
> about
> >will come to you, too, in due course -- because we are much further
> on in
> >what I believe to be the decline of the industrial revolution.
> >Keith
>
> Keith Hudson, 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath, England,
> <www.evolutionary-economics.org>
>
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