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…IQ test results correlate positively with something objective—that is, with differences in reaction times.[24] It is widely accepted among leading psychometricians such as Arthur Jensen,[25] Hans Eysenck,[26] and Ian Deary[27] that IQ tests correlate with this objective neurological measure…
According to research from Iceland, the ‘sweet spot’ in terms of fertility, or producing the highest numbers of children, is your third cousin!(Helgason, A., Palsson, S., Gudbjartsson, D., et al. (2008) An association between the kinship and fertility of human couples, Science, 319, pp. 813–816.)
…In the early 19th century, in London, it was not uncommon to see dead babies in the streets or in rubbish dumps. By the 18th century, the number of abandoned babies was so great in many European cities that orphanages were established to house them. In 1741, the Thomas Coram hospital for foundlings was opened in London. However, due to the lack of wet nurses, 71% of these foundlings were dead by the age of 15, whereas it was roughly 40% in the general population. Due to insufficient wet nurses, foundlings were malnourished and acutely vulnerable to infectious disease…
Nice summaries of civilizational cycling (rise and fall) hypotheses/myths throughout history:
Polybius (200–118 BC)
Societies rise when they are religious, have a deep reverence for the past and for older generations, are prepared to engage in noble acts of self-sacrifice, and follow clear moral rules. These qualities ensure that they have a sense of superiority, a sense of their own destiny, that they are a cohesive community, and that they can be motivated to defend their society, even unto death. When they lose these qualities—which they inevitably do—then they fall. People become too rich and when this happens they lose their ‘fear of the gods’ and with it their selflessness and community spirit, their sense of eternal destiny, their reverence for older generations, and the strict moral rules which bind them together.
Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406)
Ibn Khaldun argued that central to civilisation was the concept of ‘Asabiyyah’, which translates as something like social cohesion or social solidarity. Asabiyyah will increase and reach a peak as civilisation advances but, ultimately, it will go into decline and, with it, the civilisation will go into decline and be displaced by another one in which Asabiyyah is stronger…For Ibn Khaldun, conditions of something like group selection were strong among people who lived in the deserts. This meant they could only survive if they were high in Asabiyyah and manifestations of it such as religiousness and martial values. This high Asabiyyah allowed them to flourish and create cities. However, here the selection for Asabiyyah was lower because conditions were more luxurious. As such, after a number of generations Asabiyyah declined to an extent that they would be invaded by desert tribes that were higher in Asabiyyah and the cycle would begin all over again.
Giambattista Vico (1668–1744)
Vico argued that states pass through three stages: the Age of Gods, the Age of Heroes, and the Age of Men. After the Age of Men, society collapses back into the Age of Gods and the cycle occurs all over again…They began as simple, savage societies whose anxieties were allayed by the gods, whom they also feared. A simple aristocracy ruled over these societies and controlled them through religion or, as Vico terms it, ‘poetic wisdom’. However, this aristocracy was not highly distinct from those whom it ruled. From this, they developed into more complex societies where there was a much clearer divide between the ‘nobility’ (the heroes) and the ‘plebeians’, who fought to gain some of the privileges held by the nobility but were ruled by them. So, society has become less united. In the Age of Heroes, there is a conspicuous and highly distinct ruling class whose members battle with each other for control and to show their strength. In the Age of Men, the heroes cede some of their power to the plebeians. In the previous ages, humanity was ruled by religion and ritual and this upheld the power of the nobility. The plebeians advance their own interests, and undermine the power of the nobility, by advocating a rational way of thinking. This empowers the plebeians but also undermines religion and, in so doing, shatters cultural unity. Religiousness inspires people to work for the common good but now they focus only on the individual. Society splinters into ‘the barbarism of reflection’ in which civil wars are fought solely for personal gain. It duly collapses back to the Age of Gods.
Oswald Spengler (1880–1936)
Spengler argued that all societies that have ever existed—though they may differ markedly in specifics—go through the same fairly clear stages that organisms do: birth, youth, maturity, decline, and death. In its spring, the society is characterised by a ‘culture’ which is based around a strong sense of religiousness. This bears fruit in its summer, in which we then see the height of its creative achievements: its epics, its poems, its plays; all of them religiously inspired to some extent. The culture is vital, optimistic, and does not question its own destiny. However, as it matures into the autumn of its years, it becomes urbanised and wealthy. There appears a Socrates or a Rousseau who questions everything and we enter an age of rationalism in which technological progress goes hand-in-hand with scepticism about religion, aristocratic rule, tradition, and everything that has held society together. At first this generates optimism about a better future, in which standards of living are much improved. Indeed, the society is so certain of the utility of its rational way of thinking that it motivates empire-building and the spread of its way of thinking, often via a political figure: Caesar, Napoleon, or Cecil Rhodes. But, on the other hand, there is a decline in religious certainty, with everything focused around material wealth.This process of rationalisation continues, and every idea is questioned, then everything is rationalised down to money (even having children), all of the old ways are despised, and there is no longer any optimism or soul holding society together. Society is strongly individualist and we enter the winter of civilisation. The constant critique, and artificial attempt to create meaning, leads to a nihilistic, pessimistic world and a gulf between the money-focused elite and the masses, because there is no longer any religious belief that the position of the elite is somehow deserved. Society becomes fragmented, democracy and order break down and demagogues take over, leading an increasingly alienated mass. This is the Age of Emperors. These Emperors are given extraordinary powers to sort out the mess of conflict that society has degenerated into, including problems of external invaders. The despair which people feel is lifted by vague religious yearnings. They engage in religious practices of various kinds but don’t really believe them. But as society becomes yet more chaotic we see the development of a ‘Second Religiousness’, which is an anti-intellectual and rehashed version of the religion on which the society was founded… Spengler insists that, when he was writing, the West’s Second Religiousness remained a number of generations into the future. During this period, society becomes so badly weakened that it is often taken over by societies which are more youthful, and descends back into a Dark Age, to be reborn anew.
…religiousness is associated with stress…religiousness is a significant predictor of fertility: the more religious you are, the bigger your family is likely to be. This may be because many religions teach that children are a blessing from God and you should have as many as possible. But, as the elite become more intelligent, less stressed, and less religious, their fertility is likely to be impacted for this reason. There’s no God who demands they ‘go forth and multiply’, so why bother? Why not just ‘drink, eat and be merry, for tomorrow we shall die’? By having a small number of—or even no—children, such people help to preserve a relatively high standard of living, but it is at the expense of their genetic interests. This compounds the g decline and also leads to a society—and particularly its elite—that is low in ethnocentrism and is nihilistic.
… the basic cause of the collapse of Rome, it is that its level of g rose too high and this set off a process of g decline, because those with the highest levels were both able and willing to limit their fertility. This is the fate of all advanced civilisations. If they become too comfortable, which they do if their g reaches a certain level, they lose their religion, they lack a sense of the eternal, they run out of steam, and they start to decline.
Herder’s Romantic nationalism begins with the dogma that the most natural state is for peoples to live in separate nations internally bonded by shared blood, soil, language, and history. The peasant is the purest and least polluted manifestation of this ‘folk culture’ and, so, to rebuild it we must imitate the peasant, who is seen as diligent, honest, and the best manifestation of Man.
…The fall of religion and the nobility opens up the idea that all men are equal…
…with the development of contraception, people begin to limit their fertility and in some European countries the population growth slows down; only increasing due to non-European immigration and high immigrant birth-rate. The emphasis on equality and the questioning of all traditional ideas continues and we see the rise of feminism, relativism, and the pervading view that life has no meaning…
Winter is civilisation’s old age and, if Spengler is correct, we are already there. He predicts that we develop into a highly globalised world, which is ruled by a kind of international financial elite who are very distant from ordinary people.
..declining voter turnout in Western countries. People despair and feel that their voice can no longer influence events and so they lose faith in democracy and democracy declines. Technology flourishes, fuelled by micro-innovation…. macro-innovation rates are declining also, there is widespread economic stagnation. Feeling completely helpless and no longer trusting party politics, people simply start to elect charismatic individuals who they feel will sort the crisis out and listen to their woes…And they are prepared to give them huge powers in order to do this.
…Growing areas of the nation are no longer populated by the descendants of those who established the civilisation in question…
We can perhaps see parallels between cultural Marxism and the place of secular philosophy in the Fall of Rome. The result of this is a constant state of ethnic strife in increasingly diverse Western nations and massive immigration into them, which the financial elite perceive as a good thing because it keeps labour costs down and renders the populace divided, allowing the elite to retain power.
An elite that is anti-group selected (i.e. purely self-interested) is likely to enhance in their offspring those traits that were most important to its success—traits such as psychopathy.[8] Thus such a ‘liberalised’ eugenics is more likely than not to make things worse for civilisation in its winter years.
On providing for geniuses: There should be no pressure to publish, or deal with bureaucracy, or attend conferences. They must simply be permitted to get on with it, as Newton was.