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Stephen Jay Gould: Next to Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius in the Devil’s Mouth at the Center of Hell

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In a reissue of The Mismeasure of Man in 1996 Stephen Jay Gould wrote, “May I end up next to Judas Iscariot, Brutus, and Cassius in the devil’s mouth at the center of hell if I ever fail to present my most honest assessment and best judgment of the evidence for empirical truth” (p. 39). So we definitely know where to find him.

We have known this for some time, but a recent study nicely nails it down (see “Study Debunks Stephen Jay Gould’s Claim of Racism on Morton Skulls,” NYTimes, June 14, 2011).  Samuel George Morton, who died in 1851, had measured skulls from around the world and found race differences in skull size. Gould claimed that he had remeasured Morton’s skulls and found that Morton had “unconsciously” falsified the measurements to fit his “racist” preconceptions that Africans had smaller brains. But now

physical anthropologists at the University of Pennsylvania, which owns Morton’s collection, have remeasured the skulls, and in an article that does little to burnish Dr. Gould’s reputation as a scholar, they conclude that almost every detail of his analysis is wrong. Read more

Whites Feel Discriminated Against

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A recent  psychology paper suggests a bit of trouble on the road to our glorious multicultural future. The title says it all: “Whites See Racism as a Zero-Sum Game That They Are Now Losing” by Michael I. Norton and Samuel R. Sommers (Perspectives on Psychological Science 6(3), 215-218, 2011). The paper documents “an emerging belief in anti-White prejudice” — the belief   “that Whites have replaced Blacks as the primary victims of discrimination.” Participants were asked about their perceptions of discrimination against Blacks and against Whites in each decade going back to the 1950s. Here are the results:

The claim by Norton and Somers that Whites view discrimination as a zero sum game is based solely on the fact that the lines in the above chart cross:  perceptions of Black discrimination against Whites have risen as perceptions of White discrimination against Blacks have fallen.  But to say that this implies that Whites see discrimination as a zero sum game is a non-sequitur, since the curves could be going in opposite directions for quite different reasons. (As all first-year psychology students are aware, correlation does not imply causality.) As indicated below, there are very real reasons why Whites feel discriminated against increasingly in recent decades, and this is likely independent of the reality that there is demonstrably less discrimination against Blacks.

A paper like this published in a first rate academic journal has to follow certain ground rules. The authors imply that Whites’ belief in anti-White discrimination is irrational because “by nearly any metric—from employment to police treatment, loan rates to education—statistics continue to indicate drastically poorer outcomes for Black than White Americans.” This comment fits well with the general the general tenor of the comments by several academics (including Norton and Somers) invited by the NYTimes: Yes indeed there is discrimination against Whites via well-publicized affirmative action cases, but Whites are still dramatically better off than Blacks, so get over it. Read more

Forget the Rhino, save the White man

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In the 1980’s in South Africa there was a saying, “F*** the rhino and save the White man.” Given the turn of events in South Africa, it appears that the fate of the rhino and the Whites are probably intertwined.

The history of rhino hunting parallels the changes in attitude of Whites and their power in the world. In the 1800’s Whites were aggressive in their pursuit of power and in hunting animal species. However by the end of that century, people were waking up to the fact there were limits to the earth and that we shouldn’t destroy, but rather build up that which was worth preserving. Frederick Selous, the famous East African hunter, turned to conservation, and Paul Kruger in South Africa promoted the idea of conservation and set aside land for what became the nucleus of the Kruger National Park.

Rhino herds began to be preserved and their numbers grew. This became self-sustaining with the growth of tourism. By 1994, at least in South Africa, there were large numbers (over 30000) of rhino in the parks and their conservation seemed assured in South Africa.

Since then, however, their future is no longer assured. Poachers are now regularly killing Rhinos. A combination of poachers enticed by easy gains and the large oriental mafias that supply the endless Eastern desire for aphrodisiacs have put the Rhinos under threat. As the ability for Whites to set the agenda in South Africa declined, so has the ability to protect the rhino. The future of the Rhino in South Africa is uncertain, but the same can be said of the Whites.

In many ways the future of the Whites in Africa parallel the history of the Bushmen in Africa.

The Bushmen are now called the Khoisan in PC circles. However I will use Bushmen out of respect, as Khoisan literally means “men-thieves and murderers.” The Bushmen are possibly the original humans. They occupied virtually the whole of Africa. From the Cape to Cairo they were the dominant group. Their presence can be seen in the rock paintings present from the cape all the way to Egypt.

The Bushmen had a universalistic view of the world. There was no individual ownership of land. Land belonged to the tribe and the ancestors. When they hunted the animals some groups would apologise to the animals that they had to kill them for food. Read more

What Is and Isn’t Creative—and Not Just in Hollywood

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In the comment thread following Kevin MacDonald’s recent blog post “Hollywood and the Left, Again,” one of the commenters, Caleb, wrote “It’s not just Hollywood. Creative people in all fields tend to be tolerant and politically liberal. Show me an artist who’s also a country club Republican.” In effect, several of those who replied seemed to think, as do I, that generalizing about creativity and creative people should be approached with caution. After I tried teasing out the implications of this concise sentiment, however, concision soon got consigned to oblivion. The paragraphs that follow are what replaced it.

The truism that “creative people” tend to manifest the “values”—tolerance and liberalism, for two—of this society’s masters is as uninformative as every other truism (“a proposition that states nothing beyond what is implied by any of its terms”). Unsurprisingly, the people who have successfully peddled this bill of goods, even to some TOO commenters, fail to reveal that the definers of creativity are the same people that run the communication, information, and entertainment industries and much else besides. Read more

Guilt-tripping the Europeans

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In May a high-level meeting of Muslim and Jewish leaders in Europe was held to express their concern about the rise of the European anti-Muslim right. The meeting was organized by three Jewish groups, two of them American: Rabbi Marc Schneier’s Foundation For Ethnic Understanding, an important organization aimed at cementing ties between Jews and non-White groups, and its close ally, philanthropist Ronald Lauder’s World Jewish Congress. (See also John Graham’s “American Rabbi: Europe must accept immigration swamping.”) The European Jewish Congress was also involved in organizing the event, but no Muslim groups were involved. This was therefore a Jewish project from beginning to end.

Their formal statement is yet another attempt to justify the death of the West as a moral imperative.  Europeans are urged to live up to their ideals:

We are troubled by the growth of racist and xenophobic movements. We believe that individuals and organizations espousing such malign and hateful ideologies represent a grave threat to the fundamental European values of pluralism, democracy, mutual respect and cooperation.

Such statements always remind me of Israel Zangwill’s statement during the 1920s immigration debate in America: “You must make a fight against this bill; tell them they are destroying American ideals. Most fortifications are of cardboard, and if you press against them, they give way” (see here, p. 266). Destroy them by appealing to their moral idealism.

Pluralism and democracy are wonderful, uniquely European inventions, and they are quite adaptive as institutions among Europeans. However, in the context of massive non-European immigration they are a prescription for cultural and eventual genetic suicide.

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Review of Civilization: The West and the Rest, by Niall Ferguson

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Review of Civilization: The West and the Rest, by Niall Ferguson (2011) London: Allen Lane.  402 pages.

If you’ve ever found yourself saying, as I have, that your major political preoccupation is the salvaging of the best of “Western Civilization” [WC], you may then have been queried, “What is it? What aspect of WC is so important?”

[Let us pause here while you review your own list…]

Perhaps a bit of uncertainty? Not sure how long a list to compile? Not sure of your priorities? Isn’t it a matter of taste? And importantly, most of us are not at all sure how WC came about.

Niall Ferguson will certainly help you out here. He is the now well-known and popular (e.g., The Accent of Money) Scottish economic historian, teaching at Harvard and the London School of Economics, and frequent TV commentator.  The book under review was the basis for a six-part documentary, for Channel 4 in Britain, “Civilization: Is the West History?”. (Aha! That ought to wake you up, all you readers of The Occidental Observer.) Read more

Confessions of a Former Racist

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I repent my former heresy.  I realize the error of my ways.  I was so wrong to believe that my race, the White race, has a legitimate claim to identity or any right to advance its collective interests.  Now I know that as a White man, it is my duty to wait on the sidelines while every other race organizes and lobbies for race-based legal privileges, monetary redistributions or subsidies, and affirmative-action employment.  I apologize for balking at the idea of handing out unearned money, respect, or employment based on the color of a person’s skin.  I used to call such programs anti-White, unfair, unconstitutional, or illegal.  Now I understand they are a part of “social justice,” which is sorely needed to correct the historical injustices committed by White people against non-White people.

I am so sorry for believing that race is a useful way to predict group behavior.  I was so wrong to say “society is a racial construct” because I have since realized that race is mostly a social construct.  All of the racial crime statistics, biological differences, and behavioral variations are merely artifacts of a White supremacist society.  Once White privilege disappears, the underachieving races such as Black Africans or Australian Aborigines will skyrocket to cultural, economic, philosophical, and scientific success on a grand scale.  But presently White privilege causes other races (except for Jews and North Asians) to economically fail, commit vicious and violent crimes, and stagnate as a permanent underclass in any society that contains White people. Read more