A higher average intelligence of a country is a good predictor of a higher degree of civil order and democracy, rule of law, higher levels of education, higher levels of economic activity, and more wealth and happiness. In other words, intelligent populations create prosperous and orderly societies. The opposite is true. Lower intelligence populations have disorderly societies, crime, poor achieving economies, poverty, less democracy and unhappiness. Intelligence causes civilization -- not the inverse.
Northern Europeans and E.Asians (and their descendants) have created the most successful cultures the world has ever known. It's not an accident as these populations have median IQs around 100 to 108. The remainder of the world has median IQs mostly in the the range of 75 to 89. See this map of estimated country IQs. The difference doesn't sound like much, but a median IQ of 85 would mean 50 times fewer brilliant persons (and 50 times more mentally deficient) in a given population than a country with a median IQ of 100.
It's a tale of two worlds. It's also a tale of the clash of civilizations.
The
starkest example of this clash of civilizations is seen by comparing
Israel with the Palestinians (and other Arabs in the region). Israel,
full of higher IQ northern Europeans, is highly advanced and developed,
prosperous, tolerant, democratic and highly civilized. The
"Palestinians", like most other Arab/Muslim cultures, have devolved.
Palestinians now find themselves locked behind walls due to their
violence, are ruled by corrupt tyrants and completely dependent on
international welfare to survive. That "welfare"creates a culture of
victim-hood and dependence which furthers their cultural collapse,
not unlike a substantial portion of US blacks. Palestinians could have
decided decades ago, on any day, to make peace and work with/in Israel
-- and enjoy the benefits of the only truly prosperous economy in that
region. Instead, Palestinians have chosen intolerance and ruin for over 100 years now.
The entire Arab/Muslim culture in N. African and the Middle East has collapsed
and a huge refugee crisis has emerged. Those "cultures" have devolved
thanks to lower IQ and Islam. Islamic cultures are extremely backward;
autocratic (like the religion itself) and weighed-down by self-imposed
factors such as poor education, the suppression of women and violence,
And there is little happiness in Islamic cultures (in the West at
least). Religion is dangerous for people with weak minds!
Their uncontrolled migration into Europe is a huge clash of
civilization and will bring huge problems to Europe. Muslims in Europe
are not integrating or adapting. They form "ghettos" of
poor people on welfare and re-create the same failed cultures that
caused them to flee to Europe in the first place! They have little to offer European civilizations in their devolved condition. Then, "welfare" causes even more cultural decline.
Africa is "the heart of darkness" when it comes to low IQs -- with many countries having median IQs in the 60s and 70s. Low black African intelligence extends to the US, Latin American and Caribbean black populations. Blacks have the lowest IQs in the world and it shows. Black persons in the US continue to be a huge burden to the US and to many countries in Latin America/Caribbean. Haiti is easily considered a failed state, for example.
Latinos, who have somewhat higher median IQs, due to historical intermixing with Europeans (median IQ of ~89 and a higher standard deviation according to "The Bell Curve" from 1995), are somewhat better off. But Latino economies are still mostly backward and poor and have high levels of crime especially in Central America.
But Latinos, with
intact families and family values, are more compatible with mainstream
US culture. Even so, large uncontrolled immigration of Latinos into
America will lower the average IQ of the US and reduce the performance
of our economy on average; with lower income and more failed governance
-- like what we see in Central and South America. Latinos fall for the
false siren call of populist politicians who bring ruin to their
countries. This is the mechanism for a large-scale decline of Latin
America and the US.
Western countries should
acknowledge that immigration of large numbers of "3rd world" immigrants
causes needless clashes of civilization and burdens to their citizens. Until
recently, the entire history of the US includes nearly all immigration
from high IQ areas of Northern Europe and it's been a source of great
success. Some countries realize this. Japan allows
virtually no immigration whatsoever and maintains a peaceful,
homogeneous society. Sweden, on the other hand, has allowed large
immigration of African and Middle Easterners in the past 2 decades and
has become the "rape capital of the West"
with higher crime and simmering unrest and resentment of ordinary
Swedes. It's a powder keg now thanks to Leftist and Liberal politicians
who are willfully blind and ignorant.
If Americans want to preserve our successful culture then, we should mostly limit our immigration for select immigrants based on merit. This means that more intelligent persons from Northern Europe and East Asia, but also exceptional people from ANY country.
Also, America could interview and offer visas to interested PhD and Masters graduates, especially in STEM fields, to stay in the US regardless of country or region. Further large-scale Latino and 3rd World immigration should be limited if we want to limit a further "clash of civilization" in America. This is a prescription for preserving "American" culture.
My hypothesis, Doug, is that you can look at the clash of civilizations through the lens of man's best friend. In the Western tradition, we revere dogs. In the Arab countries, they revile dogs. And in the Orient, they eat dogs. We will never fully come together because of this...
ReplyDeleteI've been in Vietnam for a month and now in Cambodia and dogs are family pets. Vietnam is better off than Cambodia but I haven't (knowingly) seen dog in food or on menus. Basically dogs are man's and families best friends here.
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