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.

Celibrating Perversity: US Orgy of Ethno-Gender Neo-Tribalism

A great society will find ways to bring its people together around a central organising principle. A society that is in decline will fragment into competing tribes and pseudo-tribes. A perverse society will actually feed this fragmentation into competing interest groups. As a perverse society destroys opportunity in the private sector in order to feed the bloating public sector, the in-fighting between the tribes around the public trough grows vicious at times.

The US celebrates Black History Month in February. Significant parts of 8 months of the year are dedicated to one special interest group or another, in the US. The only group that is not celebrated is the hard working producers who keep the economy running to compensate for all of the neo-tribalistic waste of resources centered in Washington DC.

Month	Occasion and Description
February	Black History Month To recognize the contributions of African Americans and foster a better understanding of the African American experience. Carter G. Woodson, who in 1926 spearheaded Negro History Week, started the observation. It was expanded to a month in 1976. February was chosen because of the birthdays of Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln, two people who had a dramatic affect on the lives of African Americans.
March	National Women’s History Month Women’s History Month started as Women’s History Week in 1978. In 1987, Congress was petitioned to expand the week to an entire month. The month recognizes the important contributions made by women through programs in school, workplaces and communities.
May	Asian/Pacific American Heritage & Older Americans Asian/Pacific American Heritage observation originally began as Asian/Pacific Heritage week on July 10, 1978. In 1992, President Bush signed legislation designated May as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. The term Asian/Pacific American includes many ethnic groups with diverse cultures. The month celebrates the collective achievements of the many different communities. Older Americans Month Older Americans Month was established by presidential proclamation to honor the contributions of older Americans to society. Begun in 1962, Older Americans Month is a time to celebrate and reflect on the unique contributions of older Americans in our society.
June	Gay and Lesbian Pride Month Gay and lesbian Americans have made important and lasting contributions to our nation in every field of endeavor. In June of 2000, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America proclaimed June as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. All Americans are encouraged to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities that celebrate our diversity and recognize the gay and lesbian Americans who have contributed and enriched our national life. Caribbean American Heritage Month On June 5, 2006, President George W. Bush signed a proclamation making June officially Caribbean American Heritage Month. This month has been established to recognize the historic relationship between the people of the Caribbean and the people of the United States as well as to recognize the many contributions Caribbean immigrants and their descendants have made to the well-being of America.
September/October	Hispanic Heritage Month The first Hispanic Heritage Week was approved on September 15, 1968. The month gives people the opportunity to plan and participate in ceremonies and activities that recognize the contributions of the many diverse cultures within the Hispanic community. In 1988, the celebration was expanded to a month and goes from September 15 to October 15.
October	National Disability Employment Awareness Month In 2003, previously known as National Employ the Handicapped Week, President George W. Bush proclaimed October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month. During this month, we recognize the many contributions citizens with disabilities make to our society, and we reaffirm our commitment to helping them achieve their full inclusion in our workforce.
November	National American Indian Heritage Month National American Indian (or Native American) Month was enacted with a presidential proclamation in 1990. During the month, all Americans are encouraged to participate in programs ceremonies and activities that celebrate American Indian and Alaskan Native peoples’ important contribution to the United States.

There are many forces threatening to spin the US apart at its seams, diminishing any sense of common goals or destiny.

In the modern US, blacks are best known for high crime rates, low IQ, and maintaining a high level of grievance at all times. No matter how high the level of preferential treatment toward blacks in the US, the level of discontent and simmering anger in the tribe as a whole appears to grow worse every year.

Mexican immigrants to the US maintain several organisations dedicated toward "the reconquista" of parts of the US. Large numbers fail to learn to speak English after decades of residence. Dependency on public assistance is widespread among both legal and illegal hispanic immigrants. Crime rates and crime gangs are far more common in hispanic neighborhoods, than in all other neighborhoods except black.

In general, the best way to honour a population group within a society, is to make sure opportunities are equal for all, and that the rule of law applies equally to everyone. That way, no group will be singled out by officials for punishment or discrimination.

In the US, political leaders continue growing the central government at the expense of the private sector -- raising the general dependency upon the government, particularly among those of low aptitude. Separating the population into neo-tribes and special interests in an environment of high public sector dependency, puts an inordinate amount of power into the hands of government officials, bureaucrats, and politicians.

Such is a perverse society, which is on its way down -- unless significant changes occur.

Competent persons in the US who are concerned about the futures of their progeny will want to consider how they can free up their own productivity within an environment of opportunity -- given the general trend toward perversity generated by the Obama government and previous central governments.

More: Society's confusion over race

London Celebrates the Joy of Multiculturalism

More: Multicultural celebrations spread throughout London as well as Birmingham as festivities extend into their third day

Extensive photographic coverage and more

Holiday Atmosphere at Multicultural London Festivities
A multicultural society must open its heart to the diversity of celebratory behaviours and fun-seeking activities which different cultures tend to embrace. London exemplifies this appreciation of multiculturalism, as it continues to experience impromptu celebrations of diversity spreading out from Tottenham to other parts of the city. In this new age of ubiquitous social media, celebrations are apt to expand rapidly.

The UK is not the only modern developed nation which has whole-heartedly embraced multiculturalism, of course. We should expect the same type of joyous celebration, pictured above, to spread almost everywhere that multiculturalism has found a home.

Blogger Dennis Mangan has followed the festivities in London, and similar recent celebrations in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

There truly is no way to escape these happy festivals if one lives in the heart of a multicultural zone -- and in today's modern world, who doesn't? The best response is to go with the current and let your inner multiculturalist emerge. In today's political climate, resistance is futile.

Everyone is looking forward to the upcoming Notting Hill Carnival, the end of this month. Celebrate multiculturalism. We are all Londoners now.

Thilo Sarrazin Still Shaking the Continent: 1.2 Million and Counting!

German banker and politician Thilo Sarrazin's book about German immigration policy continues to shake Europe to its foundations. An early offensive by German politicians against Sarrazin failed to stop Sarrazin or shut down book sales. The book continues near the top of best-seller lists in Europe, after 1.2 million books sold and counting . . . It looks as if Sarrazin has triggered a debate which politically correct authorities are unable to shut down.

Sarrazin’s book is no tract. It is a subtle, well-documented, almost literary argument about the failings of the German welfare state by a top-rank labour economist. Inevitably, though, it is also an attack on the political correctness that has constrained German political discourse for decades. Half a century ago Germany’s citizens — with good reason — came to a consensus that they could not soon afford another freewheeling Teutonic discussion on the matter of, let’s say, Lebensraum.

Today, though, this limited scope for public discussion stymies the tiniest steps to fix problems that have been obvious in other countries for decades. You cannot say that Germany’s asylum policy draws idlers as well as refugees. You cannot say, as Sarrazin discovered during his time as a ‘finance senator’ in Berlin a few years ago, that welfare payments are more than sufficient to feed and shelter all but the most extravagant poor person, and ought to be reduced. Sarrazin apparently came to believe his country was dying of its etiquette, and spoke up. ‘I don’t have to respect a person who lives off the state while expressing contempt for it,’ he said in 2009, ‘who doesn’t plan for the education of his children in a rational way, and is constantly producing new little headscarf girls.’

Rough stuff, but really there is little in Deutschland schafft sich ab that has not been said at a respectable free-market think tank some time in the last quarter-century. Two things, though, are new about this book. First, Sarrazin is more comprehensive than his predecessors. Much like the German constitution, the German welfare state is elaborate and complicated by design. So this book is an interconnected discussion, at a very high level of sophistication, of German anti-poverty policy (which has promoted the growth of an underclass), the globalised labour market, the modern education system, the (small) successes and (big) failures of the Turkish guest-worker programme, and the predicament of Germany’s low birthrate.

Second, Sarrazin is not a conservative but a Social Democrat who believes in ‘emancipation through education, organisation and dogged, persistent efforts at reform’. Sarrazin considers the welfare state a mismanaged triumph, not, like most Anglo-Saxon conservatives, a sentimental mistake. Where a conservative would quote De Maistre, he quotes the Indian Nobel Prize-winner and theorist of justice Amartya Sen. Mr Sarrazin does occasionally say hurtful things (in a discussion of my own writing on Muslim immigration to Europe, for instance, he wrongly describes me as British), but never with any glee. This is the work of a social scientist, who happily deploys page after page of statistics and tables that assume you know the difference between Hartz IV and Arbeitslosengeld II unemployment payments, or between Kindergeld and Elterngeld.

‘Poverty’, Sarrazin shows, is a powerful tool of governmental mobilisation even though it does not, strictly speaking, exist. Today’s ‘poverty line’ measures inequality, not want. It is set at 60 per cent of average income — higher than the German average income in the 1970s. If everyone in Germany saw his income quadruple tomorrow, the poverty rate would not budge. And the payments to the poor create incentives for childbearing and against work. _More at Spectator

Sarrazin commits the sin of urging Germany's wealthier and more intelligent citizens to have more children. Foolhardy man! By giving such common sense advice, he offends not only the dieoff.org leftists, but the feminists as well. It's a wonder the man is still walking around in public on two legs.

Sarrazin also offends the growing armies of "diversity opportunists" -- bureaucrats and consultants intent on hamstringing entire societies with their own demented handicapping philosophy of impoverished monoculturalism (which they falsely call "multiculturalism").

So we either “celebrate” diversity, or get put out of business; but if something has to be enforced by law, then it can’t really be called a celebration as such. Is it any wonder people across Europe are rejecting “diversity”, if it comes at the cost of freedom, and requires a standing army of Gutmenschen to govern our lives? And they are rejecting it. As Caldwell writes: “A decade or so from now, Germans will be surprised that they ever looked on Sarrazin’s observations as anything but common sense. And that will be true whether they act on them or not.” _Telegraph

That would be an optimistic way of looking at it. I mean, the part where he assumes that there will be any Germans left in a decade or so . . . ;-)

Of course, the US under Obama has accelerated the schedule for its own train wreck along the same lines. Fortunately for the US, most of its third world immigrants merely want opportunities to succeed -- not opportunities to blow up their host country.

The Only Kind of Diversity That Matters

What are you really good at? Perhaps you've been told that you can do anything you choose to set your mind toward? That isn't true. But the truth may be much better than that.

The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure, meaning that few of us inherently use our innovative and collaborative modes of thought. “This breaks the major rule in the American belief system — that anyone can do anything,” explains M. J. Ryan, author of the 2006 book “This Year I Will...” and Ms. Markova’s business partner. “That’s a lie that we have perpetuated, and it fosters mediocrity. Knowing what you’re good at and doing even more of it creates excellence.”

This is where developing new habits comes in. If you’re an analytical or procedural thinker, you learn in different ways than someone who is inherently innovative or collaborative. Figure out what has worked for you when you’ve learned in the past, and you can draw your own map for developing additional skills and behaviors for the future.

...brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.

Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try — the more we step outside our comfort zone — the more inherently creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.

But don’t bother trying to kill off old habits; once those ruts of procedure are worn into the hippocampus, they’re there to stay. Instead, the new habits we deliberately ingrain into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads. __NYT

When we learn, we each learn in our own way. We need people who can help us learn in the particular ways we learn best. Whether that person is of our gender or ethnicity or religion is irrelevant to our desire to learn. The only kind of diversity that matters in a learning, apprenticeship, or open working environment is the diversity of learning methods and skills.

We are all somewhat different in what we are good at, and in the ways that we become better within our strengths. But we need to push our "comfort zones" outward little by little, or we will become living fossils--incapable of change or growth. This is something one tends to see within particular intellectually inbred communities. The avoidance of challenge, the tendency to blame "the other" for all of one's shortcomings. The need to demonise and scapegoat, because placing all blame outward relieves one from any need to face fear-inducing change.

Some things you can change. Within that constellation of changeable things inside and outside of you, lives a potential universe that would make a nice place to live. All of us need to develop the ability to explore the world of changeability at our own pace, in our own way.

Bonus:

SmartWired’s three-step process unleashes a child’s potential and fosters a lifelong love of learning:

Recognizing. The Smart Card assessment identifies the child’s unique strengths, gifts, and assets and defines his or her pattern of success.

Utilizing. Online tracking and progress monitoring helps utilize information about each child’s patterns of success and shares it with teachers, educators, coaches, and others who play a role in his or her life. This knowledge will help others motivate and support the child throughout his or her life of learning, using what is right to overcome what’s wrong.

Developing. Helping to create the richest possible environment and support for the development of each child's unique talents, including asset-focused partnerships between the home, school and community. __SmartWired

H/T Kurzweilai.net