RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://glennloury.substack.com/p/wrestling-with-cognitive-inequality?token=e

When we speak of inequality in the United States, we’re typically talking about economic inequality, whether it be disparities in wealth or differences among individuals in the opportunity to acquire wealth. People have various theories about how to ameliorate economic inequality, from taxing the rich and redistributing wealth to designing programs with the right incentives that give people the opportunity and the motivation to earn more money for themselves. Whatever one’s preferred policy, there will always be some inequality in any free society. But allowing it to run rampant poses a great risk to political and social stability. So, there will always be a need to address the problem in some way.

Still, there are certain kinds of inequality that no tax, program, or social policy will eliminate. For instance, what should we do about people who simply lack the cognitive ability to compete in our economy? What do we do with people whose intellectual abilities are so limited that employers are reluctant to hire them, so finding them any steady work is all but impossible? The sad fact of the matter is that such people exist in any society. So, you would think this problem would fall under the remit of a liberal politics that views (or claims to view) helping the disadvantaged as a moral imperative. But, when the issue has to do with human intelligence—with IQ—we hear very little from anyone, left or right, about how best to help those with cognitive disadvantages find a dignified way to live and work.

That’s because IQ has become so taboo that even admitting to the reality of innate and meaningful differences in intellectual capacity among human beings can get one in trouble. (Note well: I am not talking here about racial differences or about genetics. I am talking about the differences that clearly exist among individuals in mental ability.) Luckily, not everyone is afraid of trouble. In the following excerpt from my recent appearance on Jordan Peterson’s podcast, Jordan outlines this difficult problem with remarkable empathy. The first step to finding a solution to the problem is talking about it, which we do below.

http://www.swtotd.blogspot.com

In a letter to a friend in late 1777, after General Burgoyne’s loss at Saratoga, Adam Smith wrote: “There’s a great deal of ruin in a nation.” His point was that great nations can withstand defeats – that it takes a great deal of bungling to bring down a powerful and prosperous state. But he did not deny that nations, like empires, can and do collapse.

We face challenges, but is the United States confronting ruin that could imperil our way of life? In the April 11, 2022 issue of The Atlantic, Jonathon Haidt wrote an article titled “After Babel: How Social Media Dissolved the Mortar of Society and Made America Stupid.” “Something went terribly wrong, very suddenly. We were disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.” Mr. Haidt warned of abuses from social media, which he blamed for the lack of cohesiveness, civility and trust in society and in government, as well as being a risk to democracy. The answer, he believes, lies in three parts: “hardening” democratic institutions against extremist elements; providing more intense regulation of social media, and helping the next generation by letting children be children, encouraging more time for fun and less time on smart phones. While I agree with his suggestions about children, I have doubts as to the wisdom of “hardening” democratic institutions, and I am not a fan of more regulation. In addition, I was disappointed he did not spend more time on how social media impedes free speech, in legacy media, schools, universities and in board rooms.

A world in a whirlwind needs an anchor to windward. For most of man’s history that was religion. Today, in the United States, just over 40% of Americans say religion plays an important role in their lives. In the past two hundred years, since the onset of Industrial Revolution, there have been unprecedented changes in the lives of our species.

https://robertspencer.org/2022/04/ilhan-omars-foreign-policy

While the entire Western world is reeling at the spectacle of Russian atrocities in the Ukraine – the razed-to-the-ground cities, the mass graves full of murdered Ukrainians, the deliberate targeting of civilians with missiles let loose at railroad stations, schools, hospitals, theatres — Ilhan Omar has demonstrated her fealty to Vladimir Putin. She was one of only two House Democrats to vote against sanctioning Russia’s oil industry, while her fellow Muslim member of the Squad, the Palestinian-American Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), in the run-up to the invasion argued against providing Ukraine with aid.

Omar has family ties, of an unusual sort, to Russia. Her brother-in-law, Mohamed Keynan, was the chief of staff for former Somalian Prime Minister Hassan Khaire, known for “all but giving” his country’s oil reserves to the energy company Soma Oil & Gas, which is controlled by a Russian oligarch and Putin ally Alexander Djaparidze. Omar’s father was a Soviet-educated colonel in the Somali army during the ’80s under the Russian-backed regime of Siad Barre.

Omar and Tlaib are the two most anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian members of Congress. As such, their defense of Russia is unsurprising. The Palestinians themselves have been among the very few supporters of Russia internationally. PA President Mahmoud Abbas had a warm telephone call with Putin on April 18, in which he declared his firm support for Russia, and Putin, in turn, declared his support for the Palestinians. Hamas, too, has just thanked Putin for his “principled stand” against Israel. In the middle of the Ukrainian conflict, when Putin has been shunned by the civilized world for his war crimes, “Palestine” – both the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza — stood with Putin. Don’t let that be forgotten.