Word: murrayism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...critiques this sordid history in his oft-praised book "The Mismeasure of Man." As Gould notes, American scientist H. H. Goddard wrote in 1919 that superior intelligence ensures social dominance: "Democracy is a method for arriving at a truly benevolent aristocracy." While America has changed significantly through the century, Murray's argument is eerily reminiscent of earlier dubious claims...
...does seem healthy that a book such as Murray's can be published despite the prevailing American compulsion to avoid taboo topics. And Murray should be commended for his call to restore the traditional ideal of the scholar as someone who ought to "find the truth and disclose it." An inevitable result is that certain truths might prove disturbing to conventional wisdom...
Unfortunately, as Murray attempts to explode the liberal myths of innate human equality (and the blind faith in social constructs), he lapses into promoting more traditional myths of racial superiority. He dismisses the effects of environment as negligible. He ignores the effect of phenomena such as "regression to the mean." And he systematically reifies intelligence by employing I.Q. tests, as if such a statistical invention were a reliable measure of mental aptitude. His attempt to demonstrate the heritability of intelligence essentially proves self-fulfilling...
Even worse, he seems to assume automatically that prescriptions laden with conservative values are the only solution to the problems he discovers. In addition, as Murray dubs his own work "social science pornography," it's not clear to what extent shock value is the driving force in his research--and subsequent conclusions...
...Charles Murray may indeed be the most dangerous conservative in America, but perhaps not in the sense that he hopes. While liberals respond by resurrecting arguments to confirm their long-established prejudices, thinking conservatives might just begin to reevaluate their approach to equal opportunity and their urge to dismantle government. The flaws in Murray's work just might serve to highlight the flaws in our own most earnest convictions...