29 April 2012

20 Years of Progress

Twenty years ago, Los Angeles was burning. Police officers were initially held back from the rioting, in hopes that the violence would die down on its own. Instead, rioters attacked firefighters who tried to save homes and businesses, and the infectious fever spread across the city.

The city was burning around us. They were going to try to keep us safe. We were in Koreatown, and it was April 29, 1992...A teacher said he would allow me to follow him around the city. Then I could make my way back to Pasadena. The deal he insisted on was: If something happened to me, if my car was stopped, he was not going to help me...Nancy instructed me to stay close. We drove south on Broadway. I had never seen anything like it. Fires, looting, anarchy. We were trying to shoot photos from the car. Paul insisted we stay inside. I was trying to get my flash to fire. It worked the day before and the day after — but not that night. I didn’t see the man with the gun that came up to Nancy’s window. I was focused on my malfunctioning flash. She told Paul: “Drive, drive, drive.” We barreled through the chaos. I started counting the gunshots. That’s one shot. That’s two. That’s three. _LATimes
Long suppressed resentment and rage flared into flame. Angry glares become violent outbursts. Mobs of men and boys stalked anyone who looked out of place, with murderous intent.

A city that had been smoldering for decades burst into flames once again. Like Watts, like Detroit, like Newark, like any town or inner city that had collected and cherished a critical mass of resentment and hatred, LA flared orange and red.

A people who had been conditioned to blame everything from poverty to disease to migraines on "the oppressor race" were prepared to unleash their long suppressed anger and hate.

People were dragged out of cars and trucks, beaten and murdered in an orgy of violent emotion. No one could explain, calmly and rationally, why they did these things. They only knew it felt good. Community leaders and elected representatives supported and excused their actions.

The violence was not new -- it had been present in every inner city neighborhood around the country. It was the intensity and focus of the violence which proved a revelation. Thoughtful analysts began to look at roots of violence around the world, considering a possible racial or genetic basis.

Cognitive science had learned that intelligence was highly heritable, with clear statistical stratification by racial categories. Perhaps tendencies to violence were similarly heritable? While not a politically correct question, it was a crucially important question for rational people to ask.

Global maps of average IQ, birth rates, GDP, literacy, and other measures of social function and dysfunction all seemed to stratify according to regional -- and often racial -- characteristics. Certainly culture, religion, rule of law, corruption, and more all contributed to the overall portrait, the contribution of racial and genetic components could not be denied out of hand -- and required more study.

Thoughtful persons began to ask whether entire population groups were being left behind by advances in science and technology. As different societies' infrastructure came to rely more and more on sophisticated technologies, which required higher cognitive aptitude to maintain, it became clear that populations with low average IQs would struggle to keep up.

Chronic frustration at lack of achievement would naturally be converted into blame toward those who did succeed. As "underclass" status became intergenerational, political leaders and media conglomerates found an advantage in stoking the envious resentment, despite the obvious risk of violence.

And so the dark, rank, violent underbelly of diversity is exposed, time and again. But few learn the lesson -- that prosperous and successful societies must operate on trust. Without the trust, the machine accumulates a destructive grit and grime that leads to societal breakdown. As long as underlying realities of innate inequality and cultural incompatibilities are denied, the societal trajectory is downward.

From Australia to Canada to the UK to Europe to the US: You are soaking in a PC flood of denial, brought to you by your governments, your media, your academics, your pop stars. You are soaking in a growing Idiocracy.

Be very careful out there. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

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8 Comments:

Blogger Audacious Epigone said...

To Al Fin's American readers: Be prudent about where you are the night that the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case is handed down.

Sunday, 29 April, 2012  
Blogger Matt M said...

Flee all urban areas November 6, 2012 - If President Obama is defeated in his re-election bid. No Flat Screen TV in the country will be safe that week.

AVOID using Public transportation.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES approach stores that sell alcoholic beverages.
DO NOT go outside after dark.
DO NOT allow minors to be out after dark.
DO NOT allow children to be bussed to Magnet schools in Urban areas.

Monday, 30 April, 2012  
Blogger Hell_Is_Like_Newark said...

With the massive increase in concealed carry permits and the advent of "Stand Your Ground" laws, things may turn out differently this time (except for States that do not allow self-defense like NJ).

There are over 900,000 CCW permits in Florida alone. What will happen when a few hundred rioters end up face down in a pool of their own blood? Not by the police or the national guard... but by regular citizens protecting their lives, loved ones, and property?

Monday, 30 April, 2012  
Blogger al fin said...

Affirmative action has been with us since 1970, and in many ways -- including in terms of quantifiable resentment -- the plight of the US black communities has gotten worse.

Promoting less qualified members of society to high levels of responsibility and importance is not something that lends to a society's long term prosperity or success.

No one has solved the problem of a multicultural society where the different population groups exhibit statistically distinct means and distributions of aptitude.

Affirmative action may appear to placate the resentful underachievers for a time, but in the long run the problem can't be papered over.

Tuesday, 01 May, 2012  
Blogger Evan said...

Assuming the graphs (laughable) and maps that you're posting have some semblance of scientific merit, what do you propose? Some sort of eugenic policy that would prevent people of certain races from procreating?! Really?

Come on, quit pushing this bull shit.

Thursday, 03 May, 2012  
Blogger al fin said...

Evan old chum, it is always better to approach the world from the standpoint of what is there, than from the standpoint of wishful, politically correct thinking.

Don't feel bad, since many persons such as yourself have not taken the trouble to look at plentiful data available from the scientific study of human intelligence, and have instead soaked their brains in the stultifying suds of PC insensibility. In fact, you can safely consider yourself well within the bounds of the oblivious majority on this issue.

If you were interested in learning something, you would obviously be taking a totally different approach than your comment reveals.

But for those with more open and honest minds, who may have enough wit to actually be curious, simply follow the links, labels, and suggestions.

Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

Friday, 04 May, 2012  
Blogger Evan said...

You didn't answer my question.

Saturday, 05 May, 2012  
Blogger al fin said...

Again, follow the links and labels if you want to learn something. ;-)

You aren't familiar enough with the topic to know what questions to ask. Keep at it.

Saturday, 05 May, 2012  

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“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” _George Orwell

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