Nurture elitism, says US thinker
Robert Lusetich, Los Angeles correspondent | August 06, 2007
CONTROVERSIAL American political scientist Charles Murray is urging
Australians to ditch egalitarianism as a central tenet of the
national culture and to recognise that the country's future is in
the hands of the best and brightest.
Dr Murray will tell a forum in Sydney next week that the smartest
young Australians are being short-changed by an education system
that puts a child's emotional wellbeing ahead of learning.
"We're taking these bright kids and coddling the little darlings,"
Dr Murray told The Australian. "We placate them because we're a
society which says nobody can be stupid, even if they are."
Dr Murray is best known for his book The Bell Curve, co-authored
with Richard Herrnstein, which caused a storm by linking race and
IQ.
"Australians talk about this tall-poppy syndrome without
understanding where it comes from," he said. "It is based on the
idea that we're all equal. Well, I've got news for you -- we're not
all equal and the sooner we accept that, the better. There's
nothing wrong with being elitist and we need to come to terms with
that and embrace it."
Dr Murray will address a Centre for Independent Studies ideas
forum, In Praise of Elitism, next Monday.
The 64-year-old has made his name with explosive, politically
incorrect arguments that women lack the evolutionary genetic
intelligence to master the highest levels of mathematics and the
hard sciences, that Jews are born smart and that welfare needs to
be abolished because it encourages women with low intelligence to
sprout children who are in turn not likely to be very bright.
He has been the subject of death threats and professional
vilification but remains unrepentant. "I've been the Antichrist,"
he says, "but that doesn't mean I've been wrong."
Dr Murray's critics say the core of his argument is the flawed
notion that intelligence is hereditary; that we are born with
intelligence just as we inherit hair or skin colour.
In the nature vs nurture debate, there are a number of social
scientists who have shown that intelligence can be improved -- by
as much as 20 IQ points, according to one French study -- by
providing a more conducive environment for children. Dr Murray,
however, concedes only that improvements will be at the margins.
"Scientifically, I'm on solid ground," he says.
Dr Murray -- whose theories have helped shape the policies of
Republican administrations dating back to Ronald Reagan's -- has
some advice for Australia.
Embrace elitism and place in a very direct way the future of the
nation in the hands of the best and the brightest, as identified by
intelligence.
"Whether we like it or not, the future of our culture lies in the
hands of the people at the top of the IQ bracket," he says. "These
young people are not being pushed at all and that's what worries me
the most.
"There's no one saying to them, 'You're lucky to be as smart as you
are; you need to be worthy of that blessing'."
Dr Murray says such kids need to be trained in logic, reasoning and
ethics if our society is to reach its potential.
"They are bright but they have no idea what it is to be
rigorous.
"For instance, way too many people are going to university.
Statistically, only 15 to 20 per cent are able to deal with a
college education, unless, of course, it's not a genuine college
education and it's dumbed down. And that's what we have right now,
certainly in the US."
Dr Murray believes the education system, as it stands, is a
disaster. "We all know that but it's especially a disaster for
above-average students.
"What amazes me is this de-emphasis we have in schools now on
learning. This should be the reason kids are there but instead they
are asked only to express themselves.
"They are not expected to interpret correctly but rather they are
asked what they feel about the material.
"This is so harmful for their intellectual development.
"You never have the right answer because all answers are right.
Everyone gets an award at school, no matter how undeserved. But
I'll tell you something, kids know; they understand what's going
on.
"This constant praise produces measurably lower self-esteem because
kids know they haven't deserved the praise."
--
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22194712-601,00.html
While Dr Murray raises valid points about maximising talent, the
danger in nurturing elitism is that it creates an artificial class
in a existing egalitarian society like Australia, and this class is
not going to be able to balance itself out within this current
social structure without being cast aside by the majority.
Secondly, there is no need to appropriate ideals of supremacy in
order to maximise talent, if there is adequate emphasis on talented
segments of the population to be brought up in a way that allows
them to realise that they still have a role to play in a
egalitarian society.
