Hello ,
I enjoyed (Essay removed at authors request) and very much liked its placement on the MOQ website. But I have to question the section entitled, "Equality and Affirmative Action", which attempts to apply MOQ principles to that social question. He writes:
"Affirmative action is essentially an artificial tailoring of the existing patterns of society, by intellectual means, for the purposes of the ideal of equality. Thus it is a case of intellect dominating societal patterns, and so is moral up to the point of it's success. However US racial affirmative action appears to be incorrect it its assumption that 'equality' is synonymous with 'sameness' in that it ignores the little publicised scientific, historical and social fact that some racial groups are on average genetically different in abilities to others, and therefore are on average more suitable for certain types of employment. (Kingsley An Introduction to Psychology 1979 :132)"
First of all let me say that I'm not in a position to argue about "the little publicized scientific, historical and social fact that some racial groups are on average genetically different in abilities to others, and therefore are on average more suitable for certain types of employment." Truth is, I'm weak in my understanding of the subject of genetics. This may be due to my own genetic makeup or to the fact that I was more motivated to spend my school years trying to be a 6'5" white basketball star (never quite got there) then I was to study science. Instead, I want to argue *for* the notion of "sameness".
Let's say that a group of wealthy individuals get together and decide to furnish college tuition to some kids who can't afford to pay. The group decides it wishes to hand out those scholarships based on the principles of the MOQ. But a dispute arises. Part of the group says that because intellect is considered to be the highest level of evolution, then the money should go to the most intellectually promising students in order of their IQ's, college entrance tests and a good genetic/ biological examination. The idea is to choose those students who show the most propensities for the greatest intellectual achievement.
Now the other part of the group disagrees. They "feel" that this isn't quite right. After interviewing all of the candidates, they sense that to choose only those who scored high enough intellectually would constitute an unnatural bias and actually go against their aim of intelligently promoting "man's evolution" by creating scholarships.
The first group argues convincingly; "But the 'lessor' kids are more predisposed to falling back into biological patterns then the high-scoring intellectual kids. If we choose only the smartest ones, we'll stand the best chance of promoting evolution."
The second group can't buy this. "How do you know? We might only be promoting some biological disposition for bigger brains that can spin larger and faster calculations but leaves Mankind weaker evolutionarily. It's true that by supporting some of the more biologically inclined students, that we are likely to produce *less* mathematicians, doctors and lawyers and *more* K-Mart managers; but whose to says what will move Mankind in a better way ultimately? We can't say for sure. Perhaps the increase in social achievement among the more biologically and socially inclined students will pay higher evolutionary dividends then the fruit of the intellectual kids? The K-Mart manager may strengthen patterns of value by his presence in the community while the high IQ kid might end up wasting precious funding on low value or even destructive dead-end "thought" projects."
It seems to me that the MOQ is best represented by the second group who wishes to give out scholarships based on a certain amount of "sameness". Give some to students from one group and some to students from another group. Sort of like a dice player who knows he can't predict what number will turn up, and so chooses the highest percentage course for a return by betting a wider spread.
Also, is Bill Gates a higher form of evolution then was Mother Teresa? It seems to me that they might be at an equal level but on different branches on the tree of life. Comments?
Bill
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