Behavioral Modification

A recent post:

"Denying that there are genetic differences between groups(and again not all groups are races) is as much a religious tenet of the left as Intelligent Design is of the right."

I'm not aware of anyone of any standing at all on the Left who denies there are genetic differences between groups--your statement seems a straw man.

My position is not denying that there are genetic differences between groups--it is denying that there are differences that determine the social standing and performance of those groups as a whole, due to different levels of intelligence. The cluster of qualities attributed to genetically linked qualities like "intelligence" includes most of the apparent differences between white and black in America--including differential incarceration rates, school performance, and illegitimacy. In fact, in every case where I've listened to someone explaining why they believe this, their statistics conveniently explain EVERY difference: income, drug usage, whatever. All falling there.

And guess what? That would mean that there is no aspect of the differential performance of blacks and whites in America that would be caused by the horrific heritage of slavery, Jim Crow, and racism over four hundred years. Really? How convenient for your conscience, to think that this is all God's fault. (Or: all nature's fault) If I'd ever heard a researcher say: "and fifty percent of these differences are due to social toxicity, while unfortunately 50% of it is due to genetics..." I would have been much more impressed.

But when Group A creates, administers, and evaluates a series of tests upon group B, and then announces that the results utterly exonerate them of any responsibility for damage...I'm suspicious. And if Group A's behavior, historically, has been such that any random member of Group A would die before allowing their own children to undergo such treatment, again I'm not impressed. Have a group of Black psychologists announced similar results? No? Then I'm not impressed.

What's that you say? That black psychologists know this to be true, but are lying? So then...are you saying people are willing to lie about their group based upon race? What percentage of people (I assume you don't mean just black people)? Say...10%? So...if 10% of white psychologists, teachers, or whatever are also willing to lie (or delude themselves), think that might influence their ability to understand what is going on with these tests?

(Note: I'm not denying that the groups test differently. I'm saying that only a blind man could expect them to test equivalently unless the playing fields were level--and they are not, with conditions so broad-spectrum that they influence the biochemical environment in the womb, let alone the massive social conditioning afterward. That is why I keep peskily pointing out that nasty 10% differential in the acceptance of humanity between one group and another. When black actors can have sex in movies without white audiences turning off, I will be willing to accept the POSSIBILITY that tests like that could be administered fairly, regardless of conscious intent.)

White people would have to be superpeople to administer such tests with genuine dispassion and detachment...as black people would have to be superpeople to have survived their cultural destruction without damage. And we aren't superpeople. We're just people.

But back to the question of why only whites believe whites are superior about this. Why aren't there any black psychologists who agree?

Is the moral ability to tell the truth, or see the truth, differentially distributed between racial groups as well? So let me see here: whites aren't just smarter, but also more honest? More moral? And they can piously look at the descendants of people they horribly abused, and make calm, cool, disinterested judgements that they had nothing to do with it?

And even those judgements aren't evenly distributed across the spectrum. Let's start over again: RIGHT-WING Republican Conservatives (because that is the vast majority of the people who believe this) would therefore have to be smarter, and more honest, than Left-Wing Democratic Liberals, because that's where the split is.

Isn't that fascinating? And convenient for you to believe? Let's see: operating from my POV, all human beings want love, success, and physical vibrance. People who don't cop to this are just lying to protect themselves from emotional pain. (Remember, I didn't say this is a fact, I said that this is my point of view, and a position I am totally prepared to defend. It is honest to examine how the world looks through that prism.) And through that prism, from that point of view, I see just as many liars, as many people who are deluded about their lives and decisions, on either side of the political divide, and certainly among different racial groups.

When Group A, and ONLY Group A (because none of Group B agrees) that by instruments of their own creation Group B is...well, inferior, I have to ask if they have applied that instrument upon a level playing field. Yes? No? Well, clearly Group A considers that playing field one hell of a lot more level than I do. So to embrace a belief that you just happen to be part of the superior group (and please--let's not fudge. That's exactly what this is. You can't expect me to believe that those who believe this stuff really think that there are compensating qualities on the other side. Again, I've had hundreds of conversations like this, and in the value hierarchies of the people who think intelligence is differentially distributed, intelligence--and those things directly related to it, ALWAYS ranks near the top of their value hierarchies. Whatever qualities the "other" group may have in compensation are always far, far down the list. "Uh...they play great basketball!" Yeah, right. Of course, you have to extract those values BEFORE they know how you're going to use the information, otherwise they'll fudge.)

So in this case, whites would be smarter, more honest, have greater discipline, clarity and morality...and all of this is genetic? And just happens to explain every difference in performance between themselves and the group from which they extracted a billion man-years of work, and which was then invested in their own community. That, in essence, if that intelligence differential hadn't been there, the damage of four hundred years of this would have caused NO DAMAGE AT ALL. None. Zip. Despite the fact that psychologists regularly blame emotional problems, lack of performance, self-destructive behavior and academic issues on childhood development, there could be NO parallel between the psychological state of a single damaged adult (due to childhood issues) and the performance, on average of a group (due to issues in their group past).

Fascinating. And incredibly convenient, don't you think? God, if He exists, must really, really love white Conservative Republicans, don't you think? To raise you so high, and obscure the truth from the rest of us?

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My point of view: if things had been reversed, I'm quite sure black scientists would have devised tests to "prove" that they were innately superior to those they had devastated, and that the results would absolve them of any responsibility to correct the damage. In fact, they would claim that the heritage of slavery was "good" for whites in various ways. And would wash their hands of the whole thing, casting a fish eye at any black who had the temerity to suggest that some of the wealth and privilege they enjoyed had been ripped from those they oppressed. I see nothing, nothing at all in the fabric of our society that cannot be understood better (to me) as a matter of human blindness, greed, fear, guilt, and perceptual narrowness. To embrace a philosophy that "accidentally" puts you at the top of the heap requires no intellectual or moral courage at all.

If I was to believe in these kinds of differentials, trust me, white people would look pretty evil. But because I don't, I see it all as the result of the fact that, as individuals, we live in denial and need to feel ourselves superior to others. And that as herds, these tendencies have resulted in the belief, shared by all human groups, that they were created first, and God (however they envision Him) loves them best. Everyone believes it. Everyone thinks they can "prove" it. Gay and straight, black and white, male and female, American and non-American--I've heard ALL these groups do the exact same thing. They are right, and better, and "more than." Every one of them. Nothing new here. Unless you apply your instruments on subjects raised in a racially neutral environment, you have nothing to say to me. Move along.

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Day Ten of the 101: Behavioral Modification

Changing behaviors can be extremely difficult, and there are endless approaches. The 101 chooses to offer a wide variety of options, asks you to try them, and see which ones have a natural "fit" to your situation and tendencies.

The following approach is lovely:

1) Identify the pattern you want to change

2) Identify the pattern you want to change it to.

3) Raise your energy level

4) Practice the new pattern

5) Fail Successfully

6) Start over.

Most people never decide what they want. They don't manage their energies, they don't view failure as a natural part of the process, and they don't have the moxie to pick themselves up again and again and again.

Apply this pattern to any issue in your life. Add, perhaps, the identification of role models to teach proper actions, beliefs and value hierarchies. And you have an incredible formula for success.