Re: Meme supremacy

Fred C. Moulton (moulton@moulton.com)
Fri, 01 Aug 1997 21:17:14 -0700


Andrea Gallagher has already eloquently stated many of the points I
would have made. I will make a couple of short comments and quote a
passage from the book The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein and
Charles Murray which I read it a couple of years ago.

"Our fourth answer has been that group differences in cognitive ability,
so desperately denied for so long, can best be handled - can only be handled -
by a return to individualism. A person should not be judged as a member of
a group but as an individual. With that cornerstone of the American
doctrine once again in place, group differences can take their appropriately
insignificant place in affecting American life. But until that cornerstone
is once again in place, the anger, the hurt, and the animosities will
continue to grow." (The Bell Curve; Page 550)

Since Herrnstein and Murray lived in the USA and wrote about policies
and history of the USA, they use the term "American" in the above passage;
I would suggest that the term "Extropian" could be substituted and the
passage would still retain much of its meaning.

As I understand the Extropian tradition, racial group differences are of
little or no importance. I would urge that we promote "individualism" as
opposed to "racial groupism" in order to work toward creating a more robust
and desirable future.

Fred Moulton