Recently picked up “The Bell Curve” at a garage sale. Remembered hearing about it in the 90s, mostly the criticisms. I thought it was a racist document.
Imagine my surprise to find out it is a highly compassionate attempt to address our society’s abandonment of those who are “less bright.” It addresses race and IQ not as a primary concern of the authors, but rather because they were too intellectually honest to ignore the implications of disparity in average IQ between racial groups.
I was especially impressed by their final chapters, where they discuss how society might be adjusted to make life less difficult for the less bright. Don’t agree with everything they said, but at least they showed how the increasing complexity and ambiguity of our society might be handled just fine by those with above average IQ, but is utterly devastating with those who are below average.
I have since tracked down a number of the book’s critiques. They pretty much ignore the authors’ evidence and conclusions and concentrate on denigrating them as “bad people.”
Very sad. The problems they discuss have just gotten worse, but we can’t even talk about what they are or possible solutions.
Capitalism has done this already. Look at any fast food restaurant and you'll see symbols everywhere from the kitchen to the bathrooms. If allowed to the less bright would be fully and gainfully employed, but government doesn't allow it.