Althouse: Eugenics update.

May 8, 2015

Eugenics update.

"Women With Ph.D.s Buck The Trend Toward A Baby Bust."

23 comments:

Anonymous said...: The salvation of the white race. get all of the women their PhD's

...; 5/8/15, 7:13 AM
Theranter said...: Obama's mom had a PhD. Look what that gave us.; 5/8/15, 7:32 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: I wonder if it makes a difference what field their PhDs are in.; 5/8/15, 7:32 AM
Phil 314 said...: Women physicians retreat from their overworking careers to motherhood. Too bad male docs can't do that.; 5/8/15, 7:52 AM
traditionalguy said...: The smarter ones with sufficient incomes do not kill their children.

That is common sense. I hope no one tells them they are common.; 5/8/15, 8:14 AM
Gabriel said...: I think it is unfair to describe this as "eugenics". Eugenics requires some sort of compulsion.

People having kids when they want with the partners they want is freedom.

I would also point out that if it were true that lazy and dumb people are outbreeding the smart and hardworking, then all that means is that the lazy and dumb are more fit for their environment; paying Ph. Ds to breed, in that case, would be dysgenic.; 5/8/15, 8:39 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: A fucking drop, in a fucking bucket, but at least they're fucking.; 5/8/15, 8:45 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "I think it is unfair to describe this as "eugenics". Eugenics requires some sort of compulsion."

No it doesn't.; 5/8/15, 9:09 AM
Ann Althouse said...: From the OED:

Eugenic

Biol.
A. adj.

Pertaining or adapted to the production of fine offspring, esp. in the human race.

1883 F. Galton Inquiries into Human Faculty 24 Various topics more or less connected with that of the cultivation of race, or as we might call it, with ‘eugenic’ questions.
1886 G. Allen in Fortn. Rev. 1 Oct. 458 The result..would be as bad..if he made the choice [of a wife] himself on abstract biological and ‘Eugenic’ principles.

B. n. in pl. [after analogy of economics, politics, etc.]

The science which has this for its object.

1883 F. Galton Inquiries into Human Faculty 44 The investigation of human eugenics, that is, of the conditions under which men of a high type are produced.
1890 Universal Rev. May 54 People will fall in love, in spite of your eugenics.; 5/8/15, 9:11 AM
MadisonMan said...: As long as regression to the mean exists, how does this qualify as Eugenics?; 5/8/15, 9:33 AM
Fernandinande said...: Gabriel said...
I think it is unfair to describe this as "eugenics". Eugenics requires some sort of compulsion.

No it doesn't.

"The best form of civilization in respect to the improvement of the race, would be one in which society was not costly; where incomes were chiefly derived from professional sources, and not much through inheritance; where every lad had a chance of showing his abilities, and, if highly gifted, was enabled to achieve a first-class education and entrance into professional life, by the liberal help of the exhibitions and scholarships which he had gained in his early youth; where marriage was held in as high honour as in ancient Jewish times; where the pride of race was encouraged (of course I do not refer to the nonsensical sentiment of the present day, that goes under that name); where the weak could find a welcome and a refuge in celibate monasteries or sisterhoods, and lastly, where the better sort of emigrants and refugees from other lands were invited and welcomed, and their descendants naturalised." -- The Evil Dr. Galton

MadisonMan said...
As long as regression to the mean exists, how does this qualify as Eugenics?

That makes no sense.

See "Assortative mating, regression and all that: offspring IQ vs parental midpoint"

"Assuming parental midpoint of n SD above the population average, the kids' IQ will be normally distributed about a mean which is around +.6n with residual SD of about 12 points. (The .6 could actually be anywhere in the range (.5, .7), but the SD doesn't vary much from choice of empirical inputs.)

So, e.g., for n = 4 (parental midpoint of 160 -- very smart parents!), the mean for the kids would be 136 with only a few percent chance of any kid to surpass 160 (requires +2 SD fluctuation). For n = 3 (parental midpoint of 145) the mean for the kids would be 127 and the probability of exceeding 145 less than 10 percent.

No wonder so many physicist's kids end up as doctors and lawyers. Regression indeed! ;-)"; 5/8/15, 10:09 AM
traditionalguy said...: Eugenics is a neutral and innocent medical science sounding word whose only use since Charles Darwin was canonized has been to justify an order to sterilize or murder children seen as weak or defective if of our race, or all of the people of other races that are past the age or health to be any economic use as slaves in our Scientific Brave New Civilization.; 5/8/15, 10:14 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: I fully support any government-sponsored breeding program where I am held captive in a four star, luxury seaside compound and forced to impregnate a host of women scientifically selected for their superior genetic endowments.

Call me a patriot.; 5/8/15, 10:37 AM
traditionalguy said...: Mein Fuhrer, exclaimed Dr Strangelove as he remembered the ideal of restarting the human race deep underground with a few men in the leaders group and all the Lolitas selected from among the pretty young girls.; 5/8/15, 10:46 AM
n.n said...: Eugenics, including abortion, operates through overt and covert channels. For example, women were cajoled to abort their Posterity so that they may ostensibly follow the secular profits of wealth, pleasure, and leisure. The coercion occurred through both explicit and implicit political, economic, and social stimuli. The pro-choice or "selective child" policy was its product under the euphemistic labels of right, planning, etc.

That said, it's informative to observe what dysfunctional and unproductive behaviors are being normalized. Evolutionary fitness is clearly a minority function that can be suppressed or influenced through redistribution of secular opiates.; 5/8/15, 11:38 AM
BobJustBob said...: Idiocracy who knew it was a documentary? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icmRCixQrx8; 5/8/15, 11:40 AM
Alex said...: The next thing I'll hear from Ann is that working out at the gym is a form of "eugenics". Any kind of self-improvement = Hitler!~

Are you all fucking insane?; 5/8/15, 11:57 AM
Gabriel said...: @Ann:Pertaining or adapted to the production of fine offspring, esp. in the human race.

Tell me who defines "fine offspring". If it's Top Men, you have eugenics. If it's individuals through their choices of partner, it's what the human race has always done, in which case it's a meaningless word since it covers every possible situation.

The science which has this for its object.

Stock breeders of humans, if the y exist, are the only ones who could be practicing "eugenics". Who correspond to the stock breeders in the linked article? If stock are their own eugenicists, then it's just breeding like has always been done and the word is meaningless.; 5/8/15, 2:36 PM
mikee said...: As the proud husband of a woman who birthed our firstborn during her third year of med school and our second during her Hopkins residency, about a quarter century ago, all I can say is, "So you've finally noticed that the smart, competent women don't put up with that feminist BS?"; 5/8/15, 2:50 PM
wildswan said...: You aren't doing eugenics until you put in place social policies which diminish the numbers of some defined human group or at least have that as their purpose.

The relationship between eugenics, socialism and feminism is actually quite complex and, moreover, changed over the years. But one constant is that the eugenicists always tried to get control of the actual implementation of the socialist and the feminist agendas with respect to birth control so that the introduction of birth control would actually get rid of some human group. In the socialist and feminist agendas birth control supposedly sets all women free; in the eugenic agenda in America the introduction of birth control by Planned Parenthood was intended to drive down the black birthrate to below replacement levels. And this has happened and the birthrate is still falling.

The birth rate among educated women of whatever color is always below replacement level. But perhaps these days some groups of educated women are clear enough about their goals and secure enough in their families to have several children. It would be interesting to know a bit more about these women than just "PhD" - is it a type of PhD - e.g. STEM? Or are they religious + PhD? or "crunchy" + PhD?; 5/8/15, 5:43 PM
David said...: Probably too late for Condi Rice.

Unfortunately.; 5/8/15, 9:17 PM
David said...: The Aaron brothers combined for the most home runs in major league history by biological siblings with 768.

Hank had 755 and Tommie had 13.

Tommie died of Leukemia at age 45. RIP Tommie.; 5/8/15, 9:26 PM
Bruce Hayden said...: Saw this article and sent it to a certain young lady I know who is working on her PhD, and received her Master's degree this week, along the way.

Got in trouble though, when I asked her how to address her. You can call a guy with a Master's degree "Master". But that doesn't work that well for gals. And, Mistress has other negative connotations these days. So, I proposed "Masterette" and "Masteress". Haven't gotten a response. I think that she is ignoring my point.; 5/10/15, 10:07 AM