The Public Policy

...lll:~.ll%" l i A I l i l LIT, IT WILL, POSITIVELY ~'ure . ~ ' e r v o u s XeRdnrhe In ,5 mlnule...

...in a popular rather than an academic journal...

...It is unfortunate that any discussion of this topic must take place in such a context, because Herrnstein's article raises serious questions which deserve the most dispassionate and reflective consideration possible...

...The reaction to "I.Q" was swift and predictable...

...Please, what is fifteen percent of four-hundred-years-of-slaveryand-oppression...

...R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr...

...Still others, especially junior faculty, thought Herrnstein deserved everything he got...

...urnings of every inclination...

...Regai~d|ess of the question of racial linkage, however, the implications Of Herrnstein's conclusions for public policy are immense...

...The point is that in our complex and technological civilization, intelligence as defined above is the most scarce and vital commodity necessary to perpetuate and improve our way of life...

...u r e l l l l l o u , llra4Rche I n ~ mlnulem ! : ~ure .~*.tlrltlRllt Ill ,~ n t l l l i a t t ~ f I C'ur4- F , i l l l n l l l a l r i i l l d Baldn~ssll [ ' u r r l ) ~ n i l r l i l T H i i d I ) l l 4 - s . c . o f I h * . ~ r ! | I ' r o n i p l l y A r r * . ~ l l ' r i . m i l t t l r e (;rayness...

...tests are significant not as indicators of the basic "worth" of any individual, but rather as measures of a person's ability to think in the ways most valued by our civilization...

...For each 1 percent of such genes which appear in blacks, says Shockley, I.Q...

...But which minorities...

...In a pure meritocracy, with discrimination eliminated and all social and physical environmental factors somehow "equal," it is difficult to see how the genetic stratification predicted by Herrnstein can be avoided...

...l)*s~,hxt~.l.y Ciit~| ?ll~" l t i i f l " I l l l l t * l i f l i l ~ i * l I [ F ~ ' l l l %%|ti1"11 b i l l ' Ill'!ll R ~lPtl*lll t u l f f r l . r fur ~l'ltrl...

...Others agreed in part, but criticized the professor for publishing "I.Q...

...shall I undertip him...

...and on several occasions he was prevented from speaking at meetings where he attempted to explain his conclusions to students...

...Indeed, without such a context, the word "intelligence" ceases to have any real meaning...

...Herrnstein cited data to indicate that human intelligence depended about 80 percent on hereditary influences and about 20 percent on environmental ones, and argued t h a t as social and physical environmental factors became more equal, the influence of heredity on intelligence would become even more pronounced...

...But then will Mr~ Capano relay the story unaltered to Mr...

...Conversely, studies of sets of foster children raised in the same homes showed only a 24 percent correlation in intelligence...

...Nixon has held his last party...

...Andy Warhol...

...tests than whites...

...While only an expert in regression analysis can comment on the validity of the 80 percent figure, it is clear from this data t h a t heredity is a very significant factor indeed...

...But all sensitive, fair, and reflective men should recognize that the elimination of these evils will not yield a society of equally intelligent people doing equally fulfilling tasks for equally high rewards...

...and the type of job one holds--with the most talented individuals in the professions and the lowest in unskilled labor...

...Perkins was a wise judge of fiction and I have no doubt were he alive today he would apply the same description to Watergate...

...If we are to survive as a nation, steps must be taken now...

...Many agree with Harvard psychologist Jeremy Kagan, who argues t h a t I.Q...

...Intelligence, they say, is undefinable, and attempting to measure it leads only to pernicious and invalid distinctions...

...Certainly, we are afflicted with bogus minorities--for instance, women, a species so numerous and so unfettered as to come near constituting a public nuisance...

...Any person wishing to speak or act in behalf of an aggrieved minority must be required to obtain a license and to remove all of his, her, or its clothing (to prevent the concealment of lethal weapons...

...As a national pastime, mutual antagonism is certainly pceferable to the mass calisthenics and folk-dancing beloved of totalitarian regimes...

...When I watch the parade of sobered assistant presidents filing before Senator Ervin's committee, and when I listen to their melange of lies, revelation, and gas, I am reminded of Nick Carraway's declaration to Gatsby: "You're worth the whole damn bunch put together...

...controversy, and much more definitive research is needed before one could hazard a conclusion...

...hyphenate Americans who trace themselves to every backwater in your stamp album...

...Whether these particular qualities are more worthy of emphasis in some ultimate sense than any others is both irrelevant and unanswerable (although a good historical case can be made that these three qualities of intelligence have made the most significant contributions in man's efforts to deal with his environment...

...The Alternative October 1973 29...

...SIMONDS (continued from page 26) pancake-eating youth)is hidden beneath the dust jacket from The Story of O. Mr...

...Corll was a "nice, quiet man...

...Second, Herrnstein treats the issue of whether heredity or environment is the most significant factor in determining I.Q...

...Indeed, whatever steps are taken in that direction will merely increase the role of heredity in determining what distinctions do exist...

...And is there any end to rights...

...Within limits, these qualities can be measured...

...young people...

...In a certain abstract sense, this is true...

...Some, no doubt, would welcome that attempt anyway...

...The list is endless: American aborigines, who have elevated themselves from the savagery of setting fire to white farmers to the sophistication of setting fire to other aborigines' house trailers...

...Nobel-prize winning physicist William Shock!ey of Star~.ord has vociferously argued that such differences do exist, and it is certainly established that blacks score an average of 15 points lower on LQ...

...Italian-Americans, who had a good thing going in the media until a black man, resentful of competition in the limited indignation market, gunned down their Moses...

...touched on one of the most emotional and potentially explosive issues in contemporary American public discourse...

...It is these results t h a t Herrnstein attempts to deal with...

...do I dare to eat a peach...

...within the average set of twins...

...Our options are more limited and less pleasant than many would like to believe...

...the list grows daily, and the 1976 Democratic National Convention will have to be held at Watkins Glen, New York...

...o{I'~ F:h'~'tri~" /|:lir Brli~,b Ills...

...Chicanos are exploited...

...overtip him...

...and second, what are the implications of that knowledge for public policy...

...and the faith in man's ability to control any facet of a stubbornly complex universe...

...Within that context, one can safely generalize t h a t in western civilization, intelligence involves logical ability, the ability to deal with abstracts, and facility of communication...

...Dean Corll of Houston, Texas, who spiced his deviant activities with a refreshingly direct approach to the important question of population control...

...The first question, of course, immediately raises the issue of what one means by intelligence in the first place...

...Each such spokesperson must be transported, at government expense, to India, the Rub AIKhali, or Greenwich Village--all places where naked fanatics uttering strange cries are treated with respect, even reverence...

...most of us, I think, would not...

...The controversy over the nature of human intelligence stretches from the Social Darwinists of the nineteenth century to the environmentalists and behaviorists who have held the field in our own era...

...Particularly today, when it has become popular in many circles to insist that social and economic distinctions are "wrong," any suggestion that such distinctions may reflect differences in ability rather than discrimination will be met with a stream of impassioned and self-righteous rhetoric, prominently featuring the word "racism...

...Jr...

...All this, of course, is neither new nor the Nature of Intelligence surprising...

...But there is little to support these beliefs, and much evidence to the contrary...

...Nixon should have been treated better, though he does not deserve it...

...performance increases 1 point...

...Many of Herrnstein's colleagues protested this treatment as a violation of academic freedom...

...Do not mistake me: I am a thorough believer in minority rights...

...It is known t h a t intelligence levels correlate highly between parents and their children, but this fails to separate the influences of heritability and environment...

...The two most important are these: first, what do we know about the nature of human intelligence...

...A group of blacks led by a latter-day Joan of Arc, Miss Joanne Chesimard, struggled lately for the rights of blacks by gut-shooting white policemen...

...D o a n e , b | l e ~ e ' t v h i , - - = n a a c h l n e ( ' o . , N. 15...

...And in the background, an emotional and unenlightening debate proceeded on the substance of the article itself...

...Pilsudski, with attribution...

...The editors of The Atlantic spoke precisely to this point in their introduction to "IQ...

...If this is true, are there differences in (continued on page 29) 4 The Alternative October 1973 RUSTHOVEN (continued from page 4) hereditary intelligence linked to race...

...In short, in our society economic success is highly correlated with intelligence as measured by I.Q...

...Gatsby, who always held himself aloof from the congeries of slobs who swarmed through his mansion, was eventually destroyed by them, by the powers he set in motion while pursuing his dream, and by the conventionalities of his betters...

...Or Shall I make them Poles...

...Shockley also cites studies which indicate that certain genes distinctive to whites seem to affect performance on intelligence tests in proportion to their appearance in the genetic make-up of racially mixed populations...

...Indeed, it seems quite unlikely that evolution magically yielded precisely equal results ~in this area...

...Dare I tell him a repulsive joke about Italians...

...leaflets and petitions floated about demanding his dismissal and the banning of his "racist" teachings...

...q4nke l h l " I | l i l r (~l'oVv | , o i l K I n d (llol~lly ! I Honey r r l u r n i . d i f n o t ms rrprrs4rnted...

...Obviously, this is the most sensitive aspect of the entire I.Q...

...If human differences reflect nature more than nurture, then the elimination of those differences is unlikely, and any attempt to do so must necessarily involve public policies and controls totally at conflict with a heritage rooted in individualism and personal freedom...

...Even Washington demands a little prudence, a touch of forbearance, a whiff of principle...

...So perhaps like Gatsby, Mr...

...But one should at least face the possibility that in the process of evolution, some differences may have developed among races in the make-up of the most complicated organ in the human body...

...old people...

...America's nice, quiet men are up in arms over the slur...

...no fair man believes in unequal opportunity...

...I pine for a golden futClre in which Americans of e~ery race'/ creed, and nationality, standing together as'~brothers, will be free to berate and revile one another without fear or favor...

...The real explanation for the violent reaction to "IQ...

...tests...

...Those policemen, though not yet certified as an aggrieved minority, retaliated by stifling Miss Chesimard and her companions in jail, pending what promises to be a most interesting trial in the course of which the defense will remind us that while shooting policemen is perhaps unwise, nevertheless et cetera...

...It is clear, however, that Herrnstein's predictions cannot be wished away...

...Intelligence, like freedom, is not an abstract concept---it is firmly rooted in society and culture, and is no less valid or useful because of that...

...Only then will the rest of us-whitei black, brown, yellow, red, lavender, Catholic, Jew, Separate Baptist, Muslim (all flavors), straight, crooked, gay, solemn--be able to go about our lawful business...

...Quite simply, "IQ...

...Maxwell Perkins described Gatsby's gorgeous fling as a "pathetic episode" conveying "a sense of eternity...

...And how many...

...No one can say absolutely t h a t "intelligence is 'x', and we can measure it precisely with test 'y...

...But this increasingly popular position misses the point...

...If the latter is our choice, then, we must also learn that the continued veneration of vague, universal egalitarianism is an indulgence we cannot afford...

...Some years ago a Miss Valerie Solanas struck a blow for the fancied rights of her sex by shooting and seriously wounding Mr...

...It follows that the results of such tests can be very significant indeed...

...If heredity is the most important factor, then we will not be able to eliminate social and economic distinctions merely by changing environments and equalizing opportunity (which are difficult propositions in themselves...

...Here the evidence is spotty...

...The neighbors all agree that Mr...

...tests merely measure the degree of one's socialization into middle-class, white American values...

...First, he notes t h a t there is a direct correlation between the level of I.Q...

...Richard Herrnstein and In September, 1971, The Atlantic published an article by Professor Richard Herrnstein of Harvard University, entitled "I.Q...

...Accordingly, Herrnstein goes on to cite the work of Berkeley psychologist Arthur Jensen, among others, who discovered evidence indicating t h a t intelligence depends about 80 percent on genetic factors...

...For example, a study of 122 sets of identical twins, separated from birth and raised in vastly different environments, revealed an 85 percent correlation in IQ...

...Herrnstein was immediately branded a careless scholar and/or a racist by the legions who found his ideas either wrong or merely unpalata b l e At Harvard, he became for a time the special target of the leaders of the new wave: his classes were picketed and his lectures heckled...

...Accordingly, he concluded, one could expect t h a t as society moved closer to becoming a meritocracy, social stratification would become more, not less, rigid---or in short, t h a t "greater wealth, health, freedom, fairness and educational opportunity are not going to give us the egalitarian society of our philosophical heritage...

...Had she acted yesterday, a new bogus minority, Czechoslovak-American underground film-makers, would be filling the streets today, demanding counterliberation from armed Sapphoids...

...With this morning's milk come the tidings that gay liberation-has been carried to its logical extreme by the late Mr...

...No sensitive man wants to perpetuate discrimination...

...Then there is the problem of minorities overreacting...

...Capano down the hall tells me repulsive jokes about Italians...

...lies in its refutation of two of the dearest tenets of western liberal philosophy: the belief that men are equal not onlybefore God and the law, but also substantively...

...The black waiter has spilled bearnaise sauce on my spats...

...Re subject of intelligence is an [important, albeit painful, social] issue--important because social legislation must come to terms with actual human potentialities, painful because the actualities are sometimes not what we vainly wish...

...Accordingly, I.Q...