Some Groups are Statistically Brighter than Others -- So What?

The best psychometric research over the past several decades (PDF) consistently highlights group differences in statistical measures of intelligence. Several biological and sociological rationales for these relatively stable differences have been offered. The key point seems to be: "What are we going to do about it?"

Four US Population Groups
A large number of academics from the ideological left have attempted to deny that any group IQ differences exist, but they are oddly averse to performing the type of definitive research which would prove their thesis. And since the consistent studies demonstrating stable statistical IQ differences between groups has been performed by persons of all racial, religious, and ideological backgrounds, it seems as if the most rational working hypothesis going forward, is that the group IQ differences are real, with multiple underlying causes.

Today's discussion is not meant to be about the causes of disparities in cognitive aptitude, but rather deals with the practical consequences for society.

The first thing to note from the graphic above, is the considerable overlap of the 4 curves. This indicates that general statements about the aptitudes of individual members of a particular group -- prior to testing of those specific individuals -- is unwarranted. In other words, policies should not restrict entry to any field of study or occupation based upon group characteristics.

Next, given the apparent long standing consistency of these group differences, it is clear that at least a portion of the statistical aptitude gaps originate from biological and genetic causes. Given this knowledge, any policies which give one group an advantage in terms of academic admissions, jobs hiring, or government contracts, is completely unwarranted.

Moreover, policies which provide advantages in obtaining bank loans, government loans, government benefits, or other government mandated advantage, based upon group membership or characteristics, is wholly unjustified.

Public favours should be doled out strictly on a meritocratic and group-blind basis. Anything else is bias of a most unjust and destabilising kind.

How would a society that admitted the existence of stable statistical group differences in aptitude work or function?

First, once such group statistical differences were admitted publicly, it is unlikely that the gaps would be dwelled upon to a significant degree -- the wind would be let out of those sails, in other words. Each person would be free to pursue his or her dreams and goals to the extent to which they were capable. They could do so publicly, with the secure knowledge that no one around them had been given undue advantage by government or government decree -- overt or covert.

Second, scientific means of improving aptitude could be researched and developed in an open manner, without the need to hide the potential uses of the research. Cognitive aptitude is a damned important personal characteristic, and statistical measures of population cognitive aptitudes are very important to the fate of a society. The higher the average population IQ, the higher the per capita GDP, statistically.

Third, much current societal discord would be done away with, since it would be seen that differences in group outcome were not due to any mystical "institutional racism," but were rather due to very real statistical group differences of aptitude, due to multiple causes. Other sources of societal discord -- such as the obvious inherent unjustness of official discrimination on the basis of race -- would likewise be done away with.

Some tumult would occur in transition between the present unjust mandates and a fairer, more meritocratic system. Such always occurs when persons lose an undeserved sinecure. But as long as the facts which underlie the basic fairness of discontinuing the current system of legal discrimination were explained clearly and consitently, society will find a more stable and less discordant equilibrium.

More on this topic at a later time.

More: This Reason Magazine review of an optimistic tech-future book offers several reasons why the future should be brighter. Everything hinges, of course, upon the ability of society to set up an equitable system which gives justice to the rule of law, and equality before the law.

If bias and discrimination are built into the system from the beginning -- as in the institutionalised slavery accepted by the founders of the original USA -- something bad is going to happen down the line, no matter how optimistic the technological future looks to some.

Getting to the Bottom of IQ Differences

The old IQ comparison studies that looked merely at skull size or head circumference as proxies for brain size, have been superceded by more advanced brain imaging capable of precise measurements of whole brain, total grey matter, total white matter, specific brain centers, and specific brain pathways and networks. These volumes are, to a large extent, under genetic control. A new era in comparing group IQs is dawning, thanks to advanced brain imaging and matching analysis of brain genetics. And a new era in improving gene expression relating to cognition is near to dawning -- as long as the key research is carried out and not obstructed out of a misguided sense of "political correctness."

Brain size as measured by MRI correlates highly with IQ. Specific brain networks and brain centers are even more highly correlated to IQ than gross brain size. In fact, a particular type of MRI analysis -- diffusion tensor imaging -- may supersede traditional IQ tests as the most objective means of testing IQ.

Anyone who truly wants to get to the bottom of the question of IQ differences between population groupings, will want to see the best designed, executed, and analysed research possible done on the subject. Anyone who is afraid of having such research done, does not truly want the question answered, and is lying to himself and everyone else when he claims that "there are no IQ differences, and even if there were it wouldn't matter!" Such persons' voices should be ignored as mere noise by all of those committed to finding the best answers to important questions.

A recent UK study at UCL Institute of Child Health, finds that teens who were delivered premature at birth have significantly lower brain white matter and IQ. (Abstract Annals of Neurology) For this study, it would be helpful to match by ethnicity, sex, and SES.

Between species, a longer gestation and breast feeding, correlate with larger brains, higher cognition, and longer lifespan.

And on and on. As brain genetic expression is correlated with advanced brain imaging with greater precision, and further correlated with IQ (and executive function), the larger global picture of human brain development should become clearer. At that point it will be impossible to deny the glaringly obvious group differences in brain function, and how these differences manifest themselves on a societal and economic level.

Being an HBD (human biodiversity) denier is growing more untenable every day.

Previously posted at Al Fin blog.

Why Couldn't Sub-Saharan Africans Invent the Wheel?

IQ Map of World
Before relatively recent contact with outside cultures, Subsaharan Africans did not invent the wheel, did not invent writing, developed minimal art, or agriculture, lacked musical instruments beyond simple percussion, and came up virtually empty in terms of math, science, and technology. Why the absence of invention and development?

The map of world IQ at top provides a tentative answer to the question, but the map raises a more central question: Why do SubSaharan African populations test so low, on average, on tests of IQ, executive function, and impulse control? Is it possible that a significant part of the development of the human "superbrain" -- which makes modern advanced civilisation possible -- developed after humans left the African birthplace?

The dispersal of modern humans from Africa to Europe some 50,000 to 60,000 years ago provides a “minimum date” for the development of language, Hoffecker speculated. “Since all languages have basically the same structure, it is inconceivable to me that they could have evolved independently at different times and places.”

A 2007 study led by Hoffecker and colleagues at the Russian Academy of Sciences pinpointed the earliest evidence of modern humans in Europe dating back 45,000 years ago. Located on the Don River 250 miles south of Moscow, the multiple sites, collectively known as Kostenki, also yielded ancient bone and ivory needles complete with eyelets, showing the inhabitants tailored furs to survive the harsh winters.

The team also discovered a carved piece of mammoth ivory that appears to be the head of a small figurine dating to more than 40,000 years ago. “If that turns out to be the case, it would be the oldest piece of figurative art ever discovered,” said Hoffecker, whose research at Kostenki is funded in part by the National Science Foundation.

The finds from Kostenki illustrate the impact of the creative mind of modern humans as they spread out of Africa into places that were sometimes cold and lean in resources, Hoffecker said. “Fresh from the tropics, they adapted to ice age environments in the central plain of Russia through creative innovations in technology.”

Ancient musical instruments and figurative art discovered in caves in France and Germany date to before 30,000 years ago, he said. “Humans have the ability to imagine something in the brain that doesn’t exist and then create it,” he said. “Whether it’s a hand axe, a flute or a Chevrolet, humans are continually recombining bits of information into novel forms, and the variations are potentially infinite.” _SB

The absence of sophisticated invention or innovation prior to the human diaspora out of Africa, or in SubSaharan Africa since that diaspora, suggests a potentially deep distinction in the way that humans inside SS Africa think in comparison to how Eurasian humans learned to think.

It would be good to be able to research this puzzle, but unfortunately, the straitjacket of Political Correctness prevents the raising of such questions -- even for purposes of objective scientific research. Which means that those of us who are curious will have to conduct our investigations under the table, so to speak.

Is that not always how it is, when intelligent and curious humans are faced with oppressive and authoritarian culture-reichs, such as the modern quasi-left postmodern PC culture?

Ancient Inventions

Inventions of Ancient China

Top 10 Ancient Inventions

Much Ado About Egypt: Islam is about Submission, not Freedom

How odd that in support of the brave secular protestors in the streets of Cairo, we are already talking about not demonizing the Muslim Brotherhood — the existential enemies of every idealist now trying to win a free society from Mubarak, the dictator/non-dictator who must go now!, very soon, after he transitions a new government in the summer, when a new president is elected in the fall, or, as future events dictate, not at all. _VDH_PJMedia

Western journalists and pundits -- to say nothing of politicians -- have missed one crucial core fact about recent unrest in Egypt: It is largely backed by Islamists, and Islam is about submission -- not freedom! This is no Tiananmen Square moment for Egypt. It is far closer to an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary moment, a la Jimmy Carter and other clueless leftists of the time.

Hillary was right about her 3AM slur, and Obama is acting as any 2-year Senate veteran might in such a crisis. There is no consistent support from the left for democracy movements overseas. Strongmen like Gaddafi, Ahmadinejad, and Assad are weirdly seen as either untouchable or genuine in a way a Mubarak or a Jordanian king is not. And the latter are vulnerable only when it looks like they may fail; if they seem stable, we hear not a peep from Obama about their human rights records.

In short, the left has not yet sorted out its adherence to multiculturalism and its supposed support for human rights, which are usually antithetical. It apparently believes that any pro-democratic criticism of Obama’s tepidness is not worth the damage that might accrue to his agenda of universal health care, more entitlements, and left-wing domestic appointments. Whereas on the right there are three fissures over Egypt — neocon support for the protestors, realist support for Mubarak to keep a lid on things and change slowly, isolationist desires to keep the hell out of another costly obligation — on the left these days it is basically trying to explain postfacto Obama’s herky-jerky policies as coherent, successful, and idealist.

Predictions? I think unfortunately we may go the 1940s “we can work with Mao”/1970s “no inordinate fear of communism”/2000s “jihad can mean a personal struggle” route, where liberals believe that totalitarian nationalists somehow admire the American Revolution and our lack of a colonial heritage, and, as closet moderates, wish to work with us. That translates into a backdoor courtship with the Muslim Brotherhood, in the fashion we did with Khomeini, and ends in a decade or so with a Sunni Ahmadinejad and the betrayal of the present protestors — again, in the manner we did the Iranian moderate reformers in 1979-80 and again in 2009. _PJMedia

There is not much the US can do to help the Egyptian people at this time. Egypt is a low-IQ society permeated by religious fanaticism and ethnic and political hatred against outsiders. Resentment is never far beneath the surface for huge numbers of Egyptians.

Part of the problem is proximity to Gaza and the many decades long influx of Palestinians bearing deep resentments and grudges. Part of the problem is decades of oppressive government and many centuries intermittently under fanatical Islamic clerics. And a big part of the problem is a killing poverty associated with a human capital that is irrevocably sinking into a permanent Idiocracy.

If you can think of something that will help the Egyptian people, by all means, let everyone know about it.

Academic Lobotomies On Parade . . . . .

Outside of science and engineering, US universities and colleges too often provide an inferior product. Liberal Arts curricula have fallen prey to political correctness and post-modern multicultural dogma to the point that large numbers of the best US liberal arts graduates are incapable of basic rational thought.

For most of the past 20 years I have served on selection committees for the Rhodes Scholarship. In general, the experience is an annual reminder of the tremendous promise of America's next generation. We interview the best graduates of U.S. universities for one of the most prestigious honors that can be bestowed on young scholars.

I have, however, become increasingly concerned in recent years - not about the talent of the applicants but about the education American universities are providing. Even from America's great liberal arts colleges, transcripts reflect an undergraduate specialization that would have been unthinkably narrow just a generation ago.

As a result, high-achieving students seem less able to grapple with issues that require them to think across disciplines or reflect on difficult questions about what matters and why.

Unlike many graduate fellowships, the Rhodes seeks leaders who will "fight the world's fight." They must be more than mere bookworms. We are looking for students who wonder, students who are reading widely, students of passion who are driven to make a difference in the lives of those around them and in the broader world through enlightened and effective leadership. The undergraduate education they are receiving seems less and less suited to that purpose.

An outstanding biochemistry major wants to be a doctor and supports the president's health-care bill but doesn't really know why. A student who started a chapter of Global Zero at his university hasn't really thought about whether a world in which great powers have divested themselves of nuclear weapons would be more stable or less so, or whether nuclear deterrence can ever be moral. A young service academy cadet who is likely to be serving in a war zone within the year believes there are things worth dying for but doesn't seem to have thought much about what is worth killing for. A student who wants to study comparative government doesn't seem to know much about the important features and limitations of America's Constitution.

When asked what are the important things for a leader to be able to do, one young applicant described some techniques and personal characteristics to manage a group and get a job done. Nowhere in her answer did she give any hint of understanding that leaders decide what job should be done. Leaders set agendas.

I wish I could say that this is a single, anomalous group of students, but the trend is unmistakable. Our great universities seem to have redefined what it means to be an exceptional student. They are producing top students who have given very little thought to matters beyond their impressive grasp of an intense area of study.

This narrowing has resulted in a curiously unprepared and superficial pre-professionalism _WaPo

Is this deficit of thinking skills due to lowered expectations among schools and college professors? Or are the professors themselves incapable of basic multi-POV thought?

Certainly the post-1960s university professoriate is more prone to the teaching of a sort of blurry quasi-leftist mono-POV drivel. Professors are less tolerant of students expressing contrary opinions these days. Rather than teaching students to think for themselves, professors too often try to mould the thinking of students into a press of their own making. A very sad trend, which leads to nothing good.

This massive loss of human capital due to academic lobotomisation is combined with a loss of human capital due to dysgenic differential birth rates. Well educated career women, who tend to be more intelligent, are more likely to have no children -- or one child at most, typically.

A society in the midst of massive human capital loss, is not a society on the rise. US universities are in the middle of a higher education bubble -- with vastly top-heavy and ruinously expensive staffing in the administrative area. Time for massive re-structuring and re-thinking of the university enterprise.

Ground Zero for the Coming Anarchy

In many parts of the world, corruption is how things get done. In fact that is how the human world has functioned, on average, for many thousands of years. The modern western world of affluence, human rights, and the rule of law, is something of a glaring exception to the general flow of human history. As long as most people have ways to acquire money for bribes, the bad impact of corruption can be somewhat muted, and the good effects (things getting done) can be attributed to something else.

ImageSource

Regions of the world where the people are generally impoverished are hardest hit by corruption -- since impoverished people cannot pay the bribe. 19 out of 20 of the most impoverished nations on Earth are either SubSaharan African nations, or an offshoot of SubSaharan Africa -- Haiti. Instead of their situations improving, as has been assumed by most well-meaning observers, things are actually getting worse.

The sub-Sahara is not simply an epicenter of economic failure; it is also the epicenter of a pervasive failure in what might be called human development. Poorer countries, of course, tend to suffer from poor health and education as well, and sub-Saharan Africa is by far the poorest region of the planet today. But it is not just that Africa’s health and educational profiles are much worse than for any other major region of the world; they are also markedly worse than would be predicted on the basis of the region’s woeful economic performance alone. _Source

ImageSource

Besides widespread poverty, corruption, and poor infrastructure, SubSaharan African nations must also deal with a low average IQ as well as rampant tribalism. The map of African "micro-nations" reveals the problem of lack of cultural and linguistic cohesion -- which is always threatening to erupt into tribal and micro-national warfare.

And so we see the present and future unraveling of SubSaharan Africa -- ground zero for the Coming Anarchy. The reasons for this continuing unraveling are many and deep. It is a genuine "dark ages" in the making, a violent illustration of why politically correct multiculturalism is such a destructive deception, wherever practised.

Facing Africa's central problem of low average population IQ would demonstrate that problem-solvers were serious about helping Africa and its people. But that is unlikely to happen where political correctness holds sway. Those who claim to help end up hurting them the most.

Debt and Demography as Destiny: Emerging Markets Not Immune

Image Source

Many analysts are predicting that the emerging markets (BRICs etc) will own the 21st century, due to a superior budget balance, with far less debt than the more developed nations. But these analysts may be omitting some of the most important elements in their analyses.

Already in the decade before the 2008–2009 economic crisis, a number of factors favored considerably faster economic growth in the emerging market economies than in the industrialized countries. In contrast to the slow-growing and aging populations in the industrialized countries, emerging market economies are characterized by younger and faster growing populations. At the same time, savings rates in non-Japan Asia have considerably exceeded those in the G-7, while the emerging market economies are taking full advantage of the potential to grow rapidly through simply catching up technologically to the industrialized countries.

In the years immediately ahead, one must expect that the emerging market economies will retain many of the advantages that have favored their rapid growth in the recent past. There is now every reason to expect that these advantages will be amplified by the sounder public finances that characterize the emerging market economies. And there is also every reason to expect that, as they become even more important in the global economy, the emerging markets will become increasingly more vocal in pressing their case for their representation in international economic organizations like the International Monetary Fund to more fairly reflect their relative importance. _American

The author above rightly contrasts the prospects of "slow-growing and aging populations" with those of "younger and faster growing populations." And yet he forgets to look at another aspect of demography: intelligence. If the population average IQ is below 90, the long-term prospects for that country are not good -- unless it possesses a high-IQ market dominant minority.

So, looking at the author's "circle of favour" above, one would have to cross off South Africa. One would also have to cast a jaundiced eye at Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil, and Turkey -- all with average population IQs below 90. The future of those nations depends in large part upon how they choose to treat their market-dominant minorities, and how they deal with internal violence and corruption.

Although it is immensely wealthy in terms of minerals and energy, Russia, also, must be ejected from the "circle of favour," due to its collapsing demographics combined with its ominous trends back toward a Soviet-style centralisation of power, and reversion to tyranny.

China's economic miracle has been based almost entirely upon exports to Europe and North America. As those export markets have cooled, China has attempted to create internal markets out of nothing, building huge empty cities, apartment complexes, and shopping malls. As all of that wasted wealth (on top of the wasteful and corrupt state-owned enterprises) takes its toll on the nation's economy, economic stresses will likely lead to additional catastrophic decision-making by central planners.

South Korea and Taiwan score well economically, and on average population IQ. Both nations are, however, sitting under significant military threats from close neighbors. In addition, both nations are prone to the same demographic shrinkage that most affluent nations are prone to.

The US is being stripped for salvage by its ruling class. Only a significant re-revolution and return to constitutional ideals -- and a savage disciplining and down-sizing of governments at all levels -- can save the US from its designed dismantling. The US is likely to be dismantled, in other words.

After it becomes clear to the rest of the world that the US under Obama Pelosi is truly becoming a "paper tiger", significant shifting of alliances may well occur. But stability is not likely, until the human technological infrastructure evolves.

The Pathological African American Community Gets Worse

The wealth disparity between black and white families in the US is only a symptom of the worsening pathology within black communities. Thomas Shapiro at Brandeis released a study that followed 2,000 black and white families between 1983 and 2007 (PDF).

White families saw “dramatic growth” in their financial assets, from a median value of $22,000 in 1983 to $100,000 in 2007; black families experienced only the slightest growth in wealth during this same period, measured in 2007 dollars. This held true even at higher income levels. Middle-income whites, for instance, accumulated $74,000 in assets by 2007, as opposed to high-income black families, whose median assets totaled just $18,000 in 2007.

...the recession fell even more heavily on blacks, as the average black family has far more of its wealth wrapped up in a home. _NYT_via_ImpactLab

The Guardian newspaper also took a look at this issue:

A typical white family is now five times richer than its African-American counterpart of the same class, according to a report released today by Brandeis University in Massachusetts.

White families typically have assets worth $100,000 (£69,000), up from $22,000 in the mid-1980s. African-American families' assets stand at just $5,000, up from around $2,000.

A quarter of black families have no assets at all. The study monitored more than 2,000 families since 1984. _Guardian_via_NextBigFuture

How can one explain this disparity? You cannot explain it without looking at the rampant social pathology in the black community. Almost 50% of African American women have genital herpes, with rates of syphilis, gonorrhea, and HIV also extraordinarily high among African Americans. About 70% of African American children are born out of wedlock -- a situation which correlates closely with higher poverty, drug abuse, and crime rates. Blacks occupy an inordinate number of prison cells across the country (and the developed world). Victimology and self-pity are almost ubiquitous among American blacks -- which helps to explain the huge African American vote percentage for Obama.

Ever since the Moynihan Report was released in 1965, there has been a rising awareness of the unbelievable levels of social pathology among American blacks. Unfortunately, the situation has gotten measurably worse over that time period -- largely due to US government policies that were supposed to improve the condition of blacks.

Although blacks are actually worse off than they were 5 years ago, large numbers of blacks report that they feel better off since Obama was elected. It should not likely take very long for such optimism to reverse, as the appalling truth about Obama's effect on the economy finally hits home.

When a semi-hermetic community is riven by social pathology and venereal disease, when its economic and social status is declining decade by decade (despite massive government programs specially designed to benefit them), and when this community can only succeed by the legal theft of assets from more productive citizens outside that community -- that community is in serious trouble, and needs a reality check.

But in today's politically correct environment that panders to underperforming groups, such a reality check is most unlikely.

Poor Future Orientation, Poor Executive Function

Humans with an inability to postpone gratification for purposes of future profit tend to have poorer executive functioning of the frontal lobes of the brain. This mental deficit is reflected in adult life by a consistently lower personal net financial worth, than will be seen in other adults with better frontal lobe function.

Executive Function (EF) of the human frontal lobes has been found to be a better predictor of life success than a person's IQ score. EF reflects the person's ability to stick to a task until it is finished, and a person's ability to control his emotions in social settings. Delayed gratification for purposes of future gain is a very important aspect of healthy executive function of the brain.

Previous studies have suggested that EF is highly heritable. A recent study of net financial worth of women ages 36 to 49, compared by race, provides rough support for inheritance of EF as a partial explanation for wealth discrepancy.

In a groundbreaking report released Monday by a leading economic research group, social scientists turned a spotlight on the grave financial challenges facing an often overlooked group of women, many of whom could not take an unpaid sick day or repair a major appliance without going into debt.

"It's rather shocking," said Meizhu Lui, director of the Closing the Gap Initiative based in Oakland, Calif., who contributed to the report "Lifting as We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth and America's Future."

Among the most startling revelations in the wealth data is that while single white women in the prime of their working years (ages 36 to 49) have a median wealth of $42,600 (still only 61 percent of their single white male counterparts), the median wealth for single black women is only $5. _Source

Executive Summary of report PDF

Full report PDF

In mainstream academic and media culture, there is no room for explanations that include inherited characteristics such as EF or IQ -- at least when it comes to deficiencies of people of colour. But in the real world of falsifiable science, it is criminal and corrupt not to look at genetic and heritable characteristics that may partially explain group differences.

Of course we are seeing a lot more corrupted science in these days of radical political correctness and engineered green leftist dieoff policies. Such policies are largely responsible for a diminished respect for science and academia.

There is a developmental window when executive function can be trained -- up to the age of 7. Children of all races and ethnic backgrounds could profit from such training. But if those with a heritable deficit in EF are not trained to maximise their EF, society itself is at fault. And every person in that society will pay for that neglect.

Too Late For Europe to Save Itself

With approximately 52 million Muslims now residing in Europe, most experts believe that the European demographics are challenged. In my opinion, it is too late for Europe to save itself. The radical component of this aforesaid group is increasing dramatically, and they do not conform to the host society. They would prefer that the host society adapt to their laws and customs.

Does this mean that although Europe is lost, everywhere else in the west is safe? Hardly.

Using Quebec as an example, the Muslim community in that province has grown and exploded since the last census taking, and their increase in permitted immigration there has swelled by more than 140% within the last decade. If ever they get the opportunity to propagate here as they have in Europe, over 52 million we will become a minority people within mere decades. Unfortunately, our government has done little to prevent them from settling here in large numbers, and they are enjoying the freedom we offer.

...As far as Sharia Law is concerned, we are already witnessing the consequences of allowing them even a limited amount of freedom in that area in England, Belgium and Denmark. Sharia requires its followers to engage in Jihad through whatever means possible, and if not for any other reason, that should be enough for us to have Sharia Law banned in this country.

Sharia explicitly calls for the use of violent techniques that are designed to create fear amongst the so-called infidels, and whoever stands in the way of a potential Muslim theocracy would be easily eliminated. The suppression and brutalization of women and persecution of our gay society must never be permitted to take hold here. All we have to do is take a drive through Detroit, and see what Sharia Law has done there. Such immoral practices of religious justice stems from the Qur’an itself, and it is cruel. Their oppressive and barbaric laws can contribute nothing to the betterment of our society, or for that matter, even theirs. __DarkLessonsEurabia

The US has its own "deathlands", where viral Islam devastates the land and population unopposed.

A few months ago, I drove through a sector of Michigan called Dearborn. I stopped at a red light and took advantage of the brief interlude to survey my surroundings. I could have sworn that I was back in the West Bank or Gaza Strip. The men were walking a few steps in front of the women, as was customary, while the women all covered in dark shades of burkas’ and hijabs trailed a fair distance behind pushing baby strollers. That on its own was proof enough for me that Sharia Law was observed.

However, there were other indicators as well. The Sharia courts in Detroit and surrounding areas are authorized to settle family disputes without the consent of the US courts, and use shaming tactics as a tool for punishment. That is also legal. They have their own religious policing unit that operate independently from the local authorities, and recently, so-called ‘infidel residents’ have stated that they do believe that “honour killings” are carried out, and the bodies disposed of in secluded areas of the state that are not easy to get to by the state authorities. _DarkLessons

Islam is a primitive religion that thrives among populations of low intelligence. The average intelligence of muslims outside North America is close to 85 -- about the same average intelligence as African Americans in the US. High intelligence countries such as in Europe, North America, and Oceania should think long and hard before importing large numbers of significantly lower intelligence populations. Particularly low intelligence peoples raised from birth into a fanatical and dysfunctional totalitarian ideology such as Islam.

For Europe, it is too late. Too many rapidly procreating muslims were imported too quickly for any chance of adjustment or assimilation. Europe is doomed. What about Canada? Australia? The US? If the people wake up, some of those countries might be saved from the coming bloody wars of attempted religious conquest by Islamo-zombie fundamentalists. What about your hometown?

Any Analysis That Neglects Intelligence Is Sham

The respected magazine The Economist often presents economic and political analyses of various countries and regions. The Economist's looks at "Arab Backwardness" over the years neglect a very important consideration: intelligence of Arab populations.

Here are some Middle Eastern IQ and literacy rates to look at:

COUNTRY .... LITERACY RATE......AVERAGE IQ

Bahrain................. 85 ................... 83
Egypt ................... 51 ................... 83
Iran ..................... 71 ................... 84
Iraq ..................... 58 ................... 87
Israel ................... 95 ................... 94
Jordan .................. 86 .................. 87
Kuwait .................. 79 .................. 83
Lebanon ................ 83 .................. 86
Oman .................... 64 .................. 83
Qatar .................... 79 .................. 78
Saudi Arabia ........... 71 .................. 83
Syria ..................... 70 .................. 87
Turkey ................... 82 .................. 90
United Arab Emirates . 79 .................. 83

Canada has a 97% literacy rate, the USA has a literacy rate of 99%.
Canada has an IQ average of 97 and the USA has an average of 98. Source

The religion of Islam is a perfect fit for illiterate and unintelligent tribal peoples, such as arabs. Please be aware that the Arab world is genetically diverse and based upon the speaking of Arabic and / or the dominance of Islam. It is the legacy of past conquests and bloodshed.

Cousin inbreeding of low intelligence tribal people combined with rigid tribal and religious customs create and perpetuate a population of superstitious and violence - prone persons. Expressing surprise at the backwardness of such people without acknowledging such obvious underpinnings reveals The Economist as devious, manipulative, and / or incredibly credulous. But The Economist shares such traits with the most esteemed of modern academic and think tank geopolitica.

This "half blind" method of global and regional analysis typifies the modern approach to scholastic research. The next level will leave it all in the dust, of course. But for now, this willful ignorance is one of the great shames of modern human between-levels civilisation.

Backward and unintelligent people will conquer nations of far more intelligent and civilised people, if given the chance. The current government of the US appears intent on making such conquest appear easy. Whether such an appearance will be valid or not, it will lead such primitive people to believe that they can topple the "Great Satan." This makes war and violence far more likely than not.

Can Africa Survive the Good Intentions of the World Bank and the Neo-Colonialist NGOs?

Year by year, Sub-Saharan African countries are growing more impoverished -- and more populated. Despite the perpetual drive for increasing aid from the World Bank and the NGOs, the bottom line is that poverty in Africa is on an exponentially increasing rise. Here is what African economist Dambisa Moyo thinks about western aid to Africa:

The countries in the world receiving the most foreign aid, largely in sub-Saharan Africa, happen to be the poorest—and getting poorer by the year. Is it because they aren’t getting enough aid? Or is aid part of the problem?

...While her predecessors in arguing against aid have been Europeans and Americans, Dambisa Moyo is African by origin. She’s traveled from her native Zambia, however, to Harvard, Oxford, the World Bank, and Goldman Sachs. Africa has become a source of talent for the developed world: the South’s lack of opportunities causes a brain drain, part of poverty’s vicious circle. Moyo’s new book, Dead Aid, would not be so compelling if she were only an African woman recycling her predecessors’ mantras. But she brings to the subject a compelling and easy to understand style, along with personal commitment and moral outrage. And she upholds her argument with striking examples.

...“What if,” she asks, “African countries received a phone call telling them that in five years, the aid tap would be shut off permanently?” But such shock therapy will never happen, as Moyo should know better than anyone from her experience working at the World Bank. U.S., European, or Japanese aid bureaucracies and charities will not put themselves out of business. These well-meaning angels, more focused on intentions than results, do not want to lose their financial, and even more important their moral, raison d’être. The West’s deepest motivation in helping Africa is the feel-good impulse: we want to alleviate our bad conscience. Moyo calls it “glamorous aid.”

...Dysfunctional states will remain hostile to development with or without aid; but without aid, epidemics will rage untreated. Opening developed countries’ markets to African agriculture would be useful, but not sufficient to raise Africa out of poverty. _CityJournal

The real problem -- which is something that neither Moyo nor the writer of the above review in the City Journal dare mention -- is the utter lack of significant high - g human capital in Sub-Saharan Africa. The average IQ of S-S African populations hovers near 70. Optimising nutritional levels in those countries could conceivably raise average scores to 75 or marginally better.

Given that a nation's best educators, scientists, physicians, legal minds, architects, engineers, and technologists will come from the upper end of the IQ distribution, what kind of elite can a nation have when its upper end tops out between 100 and 110 IQ? In the west, an IQ of 125 to 130 is considered a minimum for fielding the best scientists, engineers, technologists, and medical specialists. Such levels of IQ are extremely rare in African populations.

The historical cure for that problem has been the "market dominant minority (M-D-M)", or the "smart fraction". In Rhodesia (then Zimbabwe) and South Africa, the M-D-M were white Europeans, who helped make those two countries the most prosperous on the continent. Formerly in a more prosperous Uganda, the M-D-M consisted of Indians and Lebanese -- prior to Idi Amin's purge of the "outsiders" and the subsequent crash in prosperity and quality of life inside Uganda.

The NGOs have tried to become a quasi- M-D-M, but have had very poor results. China is currently moving in to many countries of S-S Africa, playing the role of a new type of M-D-M which is based more upon a callous self-interest than the "altruistic" NGOs or the more integrated economic industry of previous M-D-Ms. Both the NGOs and the new Chinese interests tend to give the corrupt leaders of African nations exactly what they want -- bribes and a cut off the top -- while leaving the masses of the populations in growing misery and poverty.

Moyo thinks Africans can do better on their own. But that will never happen. Africa has too many riches to be left alone by the developed and emerging world.

Zombies in the Making

Human history is full of examples of ambitious people who discovered the "back door password" into human minds. Using this key, turning human beings into zombie followers was not so difficult.

Throughout history, it seems as though individuals had the ability to sway others to follow them no matter where they [led]. In the las[t] century, both Hitler and Mussolini had the ability to bend millions of people to their fascist will.

...Scott Wiltermuth of Stanford University in California and colleagues have found that activities performed in unison, such as marching or dancing, increase loyalty to the group.

"It makes us feel as though we're part of a larger entity, so we see the group's welfare as being as important as our own," he says.

...Psychologist Jonathan Haidt at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville thinks this research helps explain why fascist leaders, amongst others, use organised marching and chanting to whip crowds into a frenzy of devotion to their cause....

...our brains are geared to mimic our peers.

"We are set up for 'auto-copy'," says Haidt.

Neurological evidence seems to back this idea. Vasily Klucharev, at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, found that the brain releases more of the reward chemical dopamine when we fall in line with the group consensus. _Source

Populist leaders who have learned the secret can seemingly come out of nowhere to control an entire population. While it appears that they have turned thinking humans into complete zombies, the true situation is more complex. The potential for zombification always existed, waiting for the proper key to fit the lock.

Far more interesting to me are the "skeptics", the "resisters". Independent thinking persons who generate their own goals and stoke their own energies to create their own lives, are the starting material for the next level. Zombies and would-be zombies are flimsy, too subject to the changing winds and tides. To create a next-level human, one must start with the best materials.

It is instructive to observe the history of the American colonies, as they evolved over time. Stubborn and strong minded persons tended to flock together and created one environment, while more pliable and group-minded persons flocked to create a different environment. As settlements of even the strongest-minded individuals evolved, natural flocking tendencies began to predominate, and the more independent persons migrated out to more open territory that required a tougher-minded sort.

There is little question but that the relative strength of independence vs. conformity lies at least partially in genetic factors. Environment no doubt plays a strong part in strengthening innate tendencies toward either group-think or independence. Executive function combined with IQ and other personality and character traits, all are both largely heritable and strongly influenced by environment. Why should zombie-potential be any different?

And perhaps we do not need to go back in history at all, to see successful examples of zombification?

Cross posted at Al Fin