Not hopeless - race and intelligence - 'The Bell Curve': A Symposium - Cover Story

National Review, Dec 5, 1994 by Ernest Van den Haag

In any case, the structure of a future society does not really tell us how people will feel about it. The authors mention that intelligence is only one factor in prestige or self-esteem; but they hardly note that, in most high schools currently, intelligence is a negative factor, athletic ability (or attractiveness) a positive one in prestige and self-esteem. I do not know whether people in a future society will go far beyond these high-school evaluations. Will mathematicians be esteemed more and will they earn more than former high-school athletes?

The authors rightly commend individualism as an answer to group dissatisfactions based on low IQs and low success. Yet "affirmative action" and similar anti-individualist capers show that neither liberal politicians, nor bureaucrats, nor the favored groups want individualism. It would take another volume to explore why they have prevailed. Will they in the future? Charles Murray is just the man to explore this question.