Jayne wrote:
>So, what's up? Where is everyone? and What are we going to talk about?
A suggestion: How about "The Bell Curve"...its been seizing conversation
on lists all over the NET, and argued about all over the campus I work on.
I can't really understand why, I had thought the concept of the bell curve
was pretty much exposed as shallow rubbish by educational scholars in the
50's or 60's. Thesis of this current book seems to be (I've not read it
yet) that of all variables, gender, race, class & etc., the one that by
far means the most (to income) is *IQ*.
And even further (and the thing causing people to scream) is the author's
notion that the mean IQ of African Americans is lower than that of caucasians,
which in turn is lower than that of Asians, thus seeming to imply that a sort
of natural income differential will always exist between (for instance) blacks
& whites...not because of racism, but because of IQ.
This is certainly a ludicrous argument...reminiscent of 19th
century eugenics theory, but the question is...IMO...how could such a thesis
be advanced as something serious in the late 20th century? Is it perhaps part
of the same thing that just swept thru the country & gave both houses of
Congress to the right/far-right?
Has our nation now lost all sense of compassion? Is this trend the
final reaction to the 60's (and certainly our nation has always swung on
a pendulum from right to left to right) or is there something deeper?
Seems to me that the fact that this book could be taken seriously
is related to the fact that Ollie North was actually taken seriously.
What foul wind now moves in our nation?
-JRC
