IQ och meritokratin

My blogg short index

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2025/07/my-blogg-short-index.html

In his great book, On Heroes, Hero Worship, and the Heroic in History (1841), Thomas Carlyle raged against the levelling spirit of Victorian Britain. 

The levelling spirit is far more powerful today than it was back then. 

A new book by Helen Lewis, The Genius Myth: The Dangerous Allure of Rebels, Monsters and Rule-Breakers, is a perfect example of this levelling spirit. Genius is “a right-wing concept” that allows entitled people (most of them white men) to behave badly and claim the credit for collective achievements.

This levelling spirit is not completely triumphant, of course. The scientific world cherishes Nobel prize winners. Yet it has almost completely conquered the public educational system, particularly in Britain and America. 

The result of the levelling spirit is that education is becoming more class-bound and working-class Einsteins are being lost.

From the mid-19th century onwards, a succession of biologists, geneticists and psychologists produced an elaborate theory of intellectual abilities. 

These scientists argued that the “blank slate” theory of mental ability—saying differences in ability are the result of nurture rather than nature—have failed to answer tough questions. 

Yet people at the far right of the normal distribution curve for intellect increasingly drive economic progress. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs

China is now following Singapore’s example in turning itself into an authoritarian meritocracy that searches the population for talent and allocates the bulk of that talent to science and engineering—and the military.

In the latest Nature index of scientific research

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2025/06/18/are-chinas-universities-really-the-best-in-the-world

Chinese universities occupied eight of the top 10 places, and Western universities (Harvard and the Max Planck Institute) were left with two places. 

Adrian Wooldridge Bloomberg 4 July 2025

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-07-04/progressives-disdain-of-genius-is-a-problem-for-the-west

Adrian Wooldridge former writer at the Economist,  author of “The Aristocracy of Talent: How Meritocracy Made the Modern World.”

Deng visited Singapore in November 1978

Lee Kuan Yew told him that if Singapore Chinese who were the descendants of poorly-educated coolies could make good, how much better mainland China could be if the right policies were adopted.

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2024/06/deng-xiaoping-ran-china-despite-having.html

DNA blev inkörsporten till genetikens molekylära era, där arvet nu helt kan avläsas och på olika sätt manipuleras. Ärftlighetsläran har gått från att vara en kuriositet som främst kunde studeras hos odlade växter till att bli den sammanhållande länken för alla livsvetenskaper.

Engelsmannen Richard Dawkins har under ett långt författarskap åskådliggjort arvets och evolutionens olika aspekter i böcker där han skärskådat och exemplifierat organismernas anpassningar för att överleva. 

Hans nya bok, ”The genetic book of the dead”

Marianne Rasmuson SvD 30 april 2025

https://www.svd.se/a/B0EjR9/recension-the-genetic-book-of-the-dead-av-richard-dawkins

Jordan Peterson ~ The Uncomfortable Fact About IQ

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2021/02/ordan-peterson-uncomfortable-fact-about.html