In my humility, I’m anxious to hear what you think the legions of problems with my logic are. Please share them with me. If I were expressing pseudo-humility, I’d be less inclined to read your logical deconstruction of the house of points I’ve built above. Spengler’s assertion that Americans are stupid is easy to refute. Analytically speaking, we see very quickly, the opposite is true. Your loaded question is equally easy to collapse. Before I do that, let’s consider the concept of intelligence. Labeling a society “smart” or “stupid” reveals more about the labeler than the labeled. Consider what the study of Artificial Intelligence suggests. Bloating a neural network with information can retard its function. This is irrefutable evidence that the more we know about something, the dumber we become about that topic. What actually tells us is that any measure of intelligence is subjective. All markers have a scale and every scale has a context. Spengler’s context is demonstratively subjective. Here are graphs that disprove Spengler’s claim.
The large number of citations per U.S. patent held by U.S. nationals in all areas of technologies indicates that the United States produces higher quality innovations. Quality indices also confirm this. Figures 13a–g plot the quality index of patents across all technologies for G–7 countries. They show time trends for average patent quality. Undisputedly, average patent quality for the United States is superior to that of any other G–7 country and has improved over time across all technologies. On average, for all G–7 European countries and Japan, the quality of patents has declined in most industries, except for the U.K. computer and communications industries. The quality of patents in the United Kingdom's computer and communications industry group has increased starting in the 1990s, but registered a decline since 1998. In general, except for the computer and communications industry group, Canada has upgraded the quality of its patents throughout the study period. While the overall quality of Canadian patents displays an upward trend over that period, it has been falling since 1998 across all industry groups, except chemical and other industries. Nevertheless, unlike Japan and all European G–7 nations, Canada has maintained an above average patent quality in each industry group, but has walked behind the United States at a declining pace. The following graphs are for Computer, Electrical, Mechanical and Other - Industries.
Now I’ll consider your points. First, Americans are not complacent. Second, the suggestion that an elite American should act on behalf of other Americans totally contradicts my major premise. American society is intellectually decentralized. Decentralization with a core awareness and respect for “average” is precisely why American society can do what none other before it has done. And finally, Americans do not rule, they manage. You could argue that in the days of slavery, Southerners in America had imperial designs, but those days are long gone. Average Americans with values we hold sacrosanct today, rose up. For a brief moment they intellectually aligned themselves to thwart a clear and present threat. They did so to preserve government for the people, by the people. Americans would intellectually align again to face fascism in WWII. I believe American society will have to align again to face down Islamic Fascism in this recent war, the Global War on Terror. If we as a people do not intellectually align, we may indeed lose this war. Once the terror threat is destroyed, if it can be, Americans will again decentralize and aggressively pursue their individual passions.
Spengler is an antagonist. He’s always provocative. This time he’s wrong.
INTELLIGENCE
- capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc.
- manifestation of a high mental capacity: He writes with intelligence and wit.
- the faculty of understanding.
- knowledge of an event, circumstance, etc., received or imparted; news; information.
- the gathering or distribution of information, esp. secret information.
- Government.
- information about an enemy or a potential enemy.
- the evaluated conclusions drawn from such information.
- an organization or agency engaged in gathering such information: military intelligence; naval intelligence.
- interchange of information: They have been maintaining intelligence with foreign agents for years.
- Christian Science. a fundamental attribute of God, or infinite Mind.
- (often initial capital letter) an intelligent being or spirit, esp. an incorporeal one, as an angel.