[Paleopsych] Joel
HowlBloom at aol.com
HowlBloom at aol.com
Thu Jul 29 04:16:59 UTC 2004
A superb roundup of facts, Marcel.
re: "Iraq than in Iceland. However, if you haven't
got a meritocracy and there are lots of dimwits, the geniuses go
unnoticed or are treated as oddballs (and perhaps become marginalized,
lethargic or very frustrated and angry). In Iceland the geniuses are in
science or play chess. What are the Iraqi geniuses doing at the moment?"
The geniuses of Islam may well be concentrated in al Qaeda.
There is a key lesson about meritocracy in the stories of the Companions of
the Prophet, the tales that provide the role models for Islamic men, tales we
in the West are never told.
It's a story of meritocracy in a key enterprise--killing and war. One of the
Companions of Mohammed--a freed slave named Zayd bin Haritha leads his army
in an attack on "the Romans" at Mootah...a town with a Christian ruler. The
Moslem force--probably a small and ragtag desert bunch--are defeated and Zayd
bin Haritha is killed.
Mohammed has a disease he knows is about to kill him but he is determined to
erase the stain of this military failure.
The world of the Mediterranean and Asia Minor is dominated by two
superpowers, two massive empires so intent on destroying each other that they ignore
these Moslem desert fleas. One is Christian Rome--which controls all of Europe,
the Mediterranan lip of North Africa, and roughly half of what we now call the
Middle East. (The Roman Empire at this point is divided into a Western half
run by what's left of a barbarian-invaded Rome and an Eastern half ruled by the
thriving capital of Byzantium.) The superpower opposing Rome is the Persian
Empire.
The new expedition will attack the fringes of the Byzantine Empire--the
border Byzantium's Syrian province. But Mohammed equips his troop, gives them
their battle orders, and places the son of the now-martyred Zaid bin Haritha at
their head, making him their general. Then he orders his closest
companions--Abu Bakr, Umar, Abdur Rahman bin Auf, Abu Obaida ibn al-Jarrah, Sa'ad bin Abi
Waqqas, Talha, Zubayr, Khalid bin al-Walid, and many others-- men many years
older than this mere child, men with prestige and the wealth that comes from
plundering many an settlement of non-believers, to report to this
eighteen-year-old, the contemptible son of a slave.
These elder aristocrats of the new religion object with all their might, but
Mohammed is adamant. Why? Because he refuses to go by rank or seniority.
Instead he insists on going with talent. The son of Zaid bin Haritha is the
best person for the job.
Ill as he is, Mohammed personally prepares the battle banner and hands it to
Haritha's son, then tells him, "Fight thou beneath this banner in the name of
the Lord, and for His cause. Thus thou shalt discomfit and slay the people
that disbelieveth in the Lord."
When this story is told, it is repeated primarly to make one point. If
you've got a genius in the bunch, put him where he'll shine...especially if the
mission is mass murder and a grab for females as sexual slaves. Especially if
it's a raid to build your wealth by looting the homes of those who refuse to
listen to the truth of Allah.
But there are two ironies. One is that the teenage general Mohammed chose
apparently failed to attack the Romans and instead came back to Medina two
months later with nothing but a few camels stolen from a bedouin camp or two the
army had raided. The second is that the name of the lad Mohammed chose for this
job was--Osama.
Howard
In a message dated 7/28/2004 6:48:02 AM Eastern Standard Time,
mroele at hetnet.nl writes:
Heritability of IQ in western countries and other affluent countries
like Japan is 60% for young adults (45% for 12-yr olds; 80% for 60 yr
olds). The remaining 40% is non-shared environment - i.e. NOT the things
siblings have in common like parenting methods, neighbourhood, primary
school etc. Home environment is certainly not "the primary place for
nurturing high IQs" - and by the way the HOME has a high heritability
(genes of parents influence the way they treat offspring; genes of
offspring - their talents - influence the way they shape their
environment). There has not yet been found a method of education that
raises IQ. "Woefully inadequate" education leads to pupils not reaching
the scholastic achievements (and ultimately not the SES) that could have
been expected on the basis of their IQs - it doesn't lower their IQs.
I don't know about studies of heritability of IQ in islamic countries.
One might expect that in a country with environmental deprivation and
very unequal opportunities heritability is lower.
According to data of Lynn & Vanhanen IQ in Iraq is 87 (measured in 1968
at IQ 85; corrected for time lapse); they have not found anything on
Saudi Arabia.
As for the "irrelevance" of average national intelligence: there are
indeed more geniuses in Iraq than in Iceland. However, if you haven't
got a meritocracy and there are lots of dimwits, the geniuses go
unnoticed or are treated as oddballs (and perhaps become marginalized,
lethargic or very frustrated and angry). In Iceland the geniuses are in
science or play chess. What are the Iraqi geniuses doing at the moment?
Marcel
Lynn D. Johnson, Ph.D. wrote:
> I didn't understand Joel's reaction here. Actually, I am not sure that
> Frank is too far off base, but I think the observation is irrelevant.
> Here is why: approximately 50% of IQ is inherited, and it appears that
> all human varieties (races) have around the same inherited portion.
> The other 50% comes from environment; it appears to me that the Arab /
> Islamic environments are quite impoverished. Their education seems
> woefully inadquate, and the home environment (primary place for
> nurturing high IQs) seems to be not be so hot. So an average of 90
> would seem reasonable.
>
> But it is irrelevant because of the K / r reporductive strategies. If
> we assumed the Islamic version is primarily r, then as Val says, they
> are cannon fodder. Yet in every population there is a distribution.
> there are outliers in the cannon fodder, the occasional brilliant one.
>
> The average IQ is 100 (by definition, we keep moving the goalposts to
> keep it that way) and the SD is 15. If a region has an average of 90,
> it is likely some other region (the east side of Salt Lake City above
> 1300 east, for example, or Jewish neighborhoods, or Asian
> neighborhoods, where education is highly valued) has one of 110. It
> has to balance out.
>
> So proportionally, there are fewer >130 (superior) or >145 (genius
> level) in the islamic group (further out from the mean, so fewer
> examples) but because of the r reproductive strategy, you have a
> larger group. Within that population, there will still be the 145
> point IQ examples. They can surely produce some wicked viruses. That
> is why the average is irrelevant. Because there are always outliers,
> and the greater the population, the more outliers, in absolute terms.
>
> >From what I understand, Iraq pre-Saddam was an enclave of smarties,
> people who went to good universities and graduated in engineering and
> science. Perhaps Saudi Arabia would be the mirror image, an
> excessively religious society that de-emphasized secular learning. So
> we might argue that Arab countries might have an average IQ of 90, but
> Iraq would have been an exception. Saddam's blood thirsty appetite for
> killing the best and brightest would keep education from being valued,
> so the national IQ would naturally fall.
> Respectfully submitted,
> Lynn Johnson
> Salt Lake City
>
>
> HowlBloom at aol.com wrote:
>
>> I agree wholeheartedly. I'm astonished that Frank would say such
>> things. He is an extremely intelligent and well-informed man.
>>
>> If Frank's attitude is indicative of a widespread opinion, this
>> nation is in serious trouble. Or let's put it differently. This
>> nation IS in grave danger. There's no doubt about it. One reason is
>> the complacency for which Frank momentarily acted as spokesperson.
>> Howard
>>
>> In a message dated 7/24/2004 8:18:46 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>> isaacsonj at hotmail.com writes:
>>
>> Look, Premise Checker, it is downriight idiotic to pronounce an
>> "average
>> IQ of about 90" in Moslem nations. Where do get your facts?
>> Also, denigrating the smarts of the adversary is an act of singular
>> stupidity, sepecially in this case. Take it back and re-think
>> the wisdom of your attitudes
>>
>>
>> ----------
>> Howard Bloom
>> Author of The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the
>> Forces of History and Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From
>> The Big Bang to the 21st Century
>> Visiting Scholar-Graduate Psychology Department, New York University;
>> Faculty Member, The Graduate Institute
>> www.howardbloom.net
>> www.bigbangtango.net
>> Founder: International Paleopsychology Project; founding board
>> member: Epic of Evolution Society; founding board member, The Darwin
>> Project; founder: The Big Bang Tango Media Lab; member: New York
>> Academy of Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of
>> Science, American Psychological Society, Academy of Political
>> Science, Human Behavior and Evolution Society, International Society
>> for Human Ethology; advisory board member: Youthactivism.org;
>> executive editor -- New Paradigm book series.
>> For information on The International Paleopsychology Project, see:
>> www.paleopsych.org
>> for two chapters from
>> The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of
>> History, see www.howardbloom.net/lucifer
>> For information on Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the
>> Big Bang to the 21st Century, see www.howardbloom.net
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>_______________________________________________
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>>paleopsych at paleopsych.org
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>>
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Howard Bloom
Author of The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of
History and Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind From The Big Bang to the
21st Century
Visiting Scholar-Graduate Psychology Department, New York University; Faculty
Member, The Graduate Institute
www.howardbloom.net
www.bigbangtango.net
Founder: International Paleopsychology Project; founding board member: Epic
of Evolution Society; founding board member, The Darwin Project; founder: The
Big Bang Tango Media Lab; member: New York Academy of Sciences, American
Association for the Advancement of Science, American Psychological Society, Academy
of Political Science, Human Behavior and Evolution Society, International
Society for Human Ethology; advisory board member: Youthactivism.org; executive
editor -- New Paradigm book series.
For information on The International Paleopsychology Project, see:
www.paleopsych.org
for two chapters from
The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History,
see www.howardbloom.net/lucifer
For information on Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang
to the 21st Century, see www.howardbloom.net
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