05/10/2013
Jennifer Rubin In The Washington Post: Jason Richwine Guilty Of Crimethink!
From: A Young Illinois Reader [Send Him Mail]
The reaction of both the conservative and liberal Establishments to Dr. Richwine’s dissertation is rather telling. Steve Sailer cites Jennifer Korn ("To impugn the intelligence of immigrants is to offend each and every American.") and Ali Noorani ("What [Richwine] believes is downright insulting and shameful.”).
Let us leave aside for a moment the absurdity of believing a priori that, say, Ashkenazi Jews and Guatemalans must have precisely the same IQ distribution. Let us also leave aside the lack of intellectual curiosity betrayed by such attempts to attack Dr. Richwine’s character rather than dispute his findings.
No, what I find so revealing about this is that our ruling elites think that it’s "insulting" and "shameful" to point out cases of lower intelligence. Having a low IQ must be an inherently bad thing in their eyes; why else would they proclaim such moral outrage at Dr. Richwine’s argument?
To be sure, I don’t want an immigration policy that reduces the country’s average IQ. But within the pre-existing intelligence distribution of our society, I don’t see why it’s so terrible to observe that some particular person is not very intelligent. It’s no more inherently defamatory a statement than saying someone is short or left-handed or hearing-impaired. If it’s true, it’s true. An unintelligent person has no less worth than a smart person. I've spent my whole life thus far among bright children of the upper-middle class meritocracy, and I do not assume that we must be better or more virtuous than our less intelligent peers.
To the contrary, it is that very meritocracy and the ruling class it produces that seem to have an obnoxious and elitist Yale-or-jail mentality. This is the essence of Korn and Noorani’s comments, and it explains why the ruling elites must embrace the cult of Diversity and Blank-Slate romanticism.
It’s the only way to square their functional elitism with their theoretical liberal egalitarianism. You can believe that smart people are better than less-smart people, but it’s not elitist as long as you make yourself believe that all individuals and groups have precisely the same ability to produce high-power lawyers and tech entrepreneurs. Just improve the schools and they'll all be white-collar Masters of the Universe!
In this regard, as with the economic costs and benefits of mass immigration, the Diversity ideology is the public face of elitism.
See previous letters from this reader.
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