The Celtic and the English civilization.

Recent events in the UK, have given me pause to reflect on one very obvious issue. Almost every media organ referred to the riots as “UK riots”...yet, it is most clear when one looks at the list of locations of the riots – which were many, incidentally – that this was NOT a British problem – but an English one. An unavoidable conclusion comes to me: English civilization has declined in relation to Celtic civilization and now, at this time, the Celts (that is the Irish, the Scots and the Welsh) are most definitely more civilized than the English. The further question that this prompts me to ask is: was this always so?

The Irish, as an example of the Celts, are noted for their friendliness and ease of conversation. The English are traditionally noted for aloofness, to a degree and reluctance to engage with strangers (at least, a certain class of Englishmen). Could it be that the disengaged English are not working together to create an inclusive civilization, whereas the friendly Irish etc are being more inclusive and more, thereby, civilizing?

It is funny, in a way – darkly funny – for you see the English, that is a certain class of English, have long looked down on the Irish – they think of themselves as “superior” to the Irish. This is, of course, an English delusion since the Irish are among the most creative and intelligent people I know (that is I can produce specific examples of creativity and intelligence from among the Irish population). On the other hand, England has spent the last few generations breeding a new class of people, for whom “intelligence” is an unspellable word (yes, my computer suspects that to be a neologism, but never mind). This new class of Englishman is, perhaps, more violent, more resentful, more ungrateful, more parasitic and more criminal than any other similar group in any country I care to think of. They are the New Englishman. Now, it seems to me, that if England does not confront the implications of the existence of this large group of largely unemployable individuals, that England faces ruin in the long term: these people have the power to bring down that once great nation. You see, one big problem is that this group appears quite fertile: they are having lots of kids. There are many accounts of great fecundity among them. Yet, what kind of children are they having? Generally speaking, they are in the mould of their parents: low IQ, unskilled, uneducated, and, it seems, quite often, violent. Does England really want to be over-run by hordes of low IQ youngsters, who think that burglary is a respectable profession and mugging is an enjoyable hobby?

The problem the English now face, is made particularly difficult by the nature of the English State. There are particular obvious solutions to this problem which would be politically impossible. For instance, any significant reduction in benefits for this “underclass” would result in said underclass, numbering in the millions, voting out the existing government and replacing it with any party who promised to reinstate their benefits. Yet, it cannot be doubted that the benefit system, as is, has paid for the creation of this underclass. Unless difficult decisions are made and implemented and unless the various parties can agree, together, to maintain these changes, this underclass will only grow and grow until it becomes a dominant force in England. At that time, England, as we think we know it, would be at an end. The nation that would be in its place, would be a very ugly one indeed. The recent riots would be as nothing compared to the chronic condition of such a nation.

I hope that England’s present leaders, find the strength to face up to this problem and address it intelligently, even if their approach causes short term pain, as long as it ameliorates the situation, in the long term. Until then, however, it seems safe to say that Celtic civilization is more civilized than the English have now become.

Disclosure: I am Irish – but that doesn’t change the validity of what I have observed.

Posted by Valentine Cawley.

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Living in a time of morons.

For the gifted, particularly the most gifted, the world can seem a dull place, sometimes. By this I mean that the most gifted people are accustomed to encountering people who don’t seem very bright (to them). For such people, life can be difficult in ways that few people understand. Many people will, of course, have no sympathy for the plight of the more gifted members of society. “So what?”, such people might think, if they can’t find people to talk to, who will understand them. Many people would dismiss their concerns as the meaningless worries of an “elite” or, worse still, “an elitist”.

Well, the irony of the world situation is that many of these people, who dismiss the gifted, and their concerns, will one day find out exactly how the gifted feel. I shall explain. You see, the modern world is in decline, owing to dysgenic fertility – such that the bright have fewer children than the dim and so the intellectual quality of human populations is in decline – and has been so declining since at least 1850, according to the research of Richard Lynn. Now, you might think, surely we shouldn’t be worried, since human evolution is slow? Well, no, it isn’t slow in this respect at all.

Our view of the world is limited by our own lifespan and what that has allowed us to see. However, it doesn’t take much time in a library comparing the literary works of say the 19^th Century, to the vapid effusions of many modern writers to be led to wonder if Man has degenerated over that timescale. Well, research shows that Man, has indeed fallen pretty far, in that time. Richard Lynn calculates that the mean IQ of English people has fallen 6.9 IQ points between 1920 and 2010. Helmuth Nyborg further calculates that Danish IQs have fallen 10 IQ points since 1850. So, we already live in degenerate times – but what is to come, is far, far worse than what has been.

Helmuth Nyborg has written a paper on the future of Denmark, entitled, “The Decay of Western Civilization: Double Relaxed Natural Selection”. His example is Denmark. Now, I am not going into the details in this first post – I shall revisit his work further in another post. I would just like to point your attention to a couple of choice items from his paper. He calculates that the phenotypic (expressed) IQ of the Danish population will fall about 21 points from 1850 to 2072 – that is, it will fall a further 11 points, by 2072. The underlying fall in genotypic potential IQ is 17 points or so over that period. Furthermore, by 2050 children with IQs between 70 and 85 will dominate the school system and will constitute the MAJORITY OF THE POPULATION, shortly after 2075. Now, I should remind you that children whose IQs are in that range are the kind of kids that, when I was growing up, would have been singled out in school as “slow” and “stupid” and subject to teasing over their dimwittedness. (Yes, school children can be cruel, I know.) I suppose that the only “silver lining” is that, in a time when most kids have such low IQs, they will no longer be teased. Then again, the teasing of the few bright ones will undoubtedly be more intense.

What does this mean for a young person who is not gifted, now, in the present world, but who is of above average intelligence? Well, it is simple. The mean IQ of the world population (because Helmuth Nyborg’s observations apply to the whole Western world, to a great degree…and there are similar problems in most of the rest of the world), will fall, to such a great degree, in their lifetime, that, when they get old, the world will seem to them, as it does to the gifted now. The young, but not gifted person, will get old in a time of morons. The average person in this future world will seem rather dim to the person who is now only a bit above average. The great irony of this is that many, who now have no sympathy for the social problems of the gifted, will face exactly the same social problems themselves as they get old. The whole world is becoming stupid, at an astonishing rate.

Of course, those who are now gifted, will be even less happy about the situation than they are now - but at least more people will come to understand the situation, of the gifted, from personal experience.

I am not looking forward to this demographic shift. Much that is great about Humanity, depends on higher intelligence – and that is precisely what is going to be in short supply, as I get old. It seems ultimately ironic that old people in that time, will be the brightest people – not the young, at all. This is the ultimate reversal of age stereotypes, of the senile oldies, and the vibrant, bright young things. It is the old, who shall be bright – and the young who shall seem “senile” to them. What a sad world is coming to us all – a time of morons.

Note: I am not denigrating those of low IQ. All who are human, can contribute in certain ways, to the world and may live lives of happiness that add to the quality of life of others. However, my concern is that the elements of civilization that require higher thought, are not accessible to low IQ people and these people are not able to contribute to the maintenance and advancement of civilization and society, in complex ways. They thus do not raise the world in which they live, technologically, scientifically or culturally. However, if they constitute the majority of people, they WILL LOWER IT. This is not to devalue them as people - but just is to note that they are not mentally equipped to contribute to higher civilization. The world is not improved, in any way, by increasing the numbers of low IQ people, until they constitute the majority of the population. Anyone who thinks they do, is just looking for an easy population to control and manipulate...but that is another blog post altogether.

(If you would like to support my continued writing of this blog and my ongoing campaign to raise awareness about giftedness and all issues pertaining to it, please donate, by clicking on the gold button to the left of the page.

To read about my fundraising campaign, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-in-support-of-my.htmland here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fundraising-drive-first-donation.html

If you would like to read any of our scientific research papers, there are links to some of them, here: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2011/02/research-papers-by-valentine-cawley-and.html

If you would like to see an online summary of my academic achievements to date, please go here: http://www.getcited.org/mbrz/11136175

To learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 7 and Tiarnan, 5, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

There is a review of my blog, on the respected The Kindle Report here:http://thekindlereport.blogspot.com/2010/09/boy-who-knew-too-much-child-prodigy.html

Please have a read, if you would like a critic's view of this blog. Thanks.

You can get my blog on your Kindle, for easy reading, wherever you are, by going to: http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Knew-Too-Much/dp/B0042P5LEE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1284603792&sr=8-1

Please let all your fellow Kindlers know about my blog availability - and if you know my blog well enough, please be so kind as to write a thoughtful review of what you like about it. Thanks.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at:http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/

Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/

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Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is athttp://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Old and Childless.

So many, today, are old and childless. It doesn't bode well for the future of the world, for you know who these "old and childless" people are: ones with something to offer future generations.

Personally, I know several who are old but childless, who have lived full lives but never become parents. A short description of them is enough to cause alarm among those who care for the future genetic quality of Mankind. One of them has the best autobiographical memory I have ever encountered: he remembers his life in the most exquisite detail, despite being in his late sixties. He has never had a child and never will. His gift, for profound memory, will never be passed on.

I know others, too. One is a businessman and non-fiction writer. He is very intelligent and energetic and has qualities which any child would love the chance to have inherited from a parent. He is in his seventies, has never fathered a child and never will.

I know another who is actually a well-known fiction writer, of high quality literary fiction. He is about sixty, is unmarried (though has "girlfriends") and is very unlikely to have a child: he has said he doesn't want to be a parent because he doesn't think he would make a good one. I look at his written work and see a gifted man who will never pass on his gift.

I know another who is a former physicist, who is now a well-known photographer. He is old, but doesn't reveal his age. He is one of the brightest people I know of. He too has never had a child and doesn't want one - for the same reason as the one above: he is critical of himself and doesn't believe he would be a good father. His fine mind has not and will not be passed on.

Finally, there is someone I do not personally know: Robert Sawyer, who is a science fiction author of broad and deep talent. He is not yet old but is adamant that he will never have a child. As far as I remember he prefers to live on in "memes". In other words, he doesn't want a child to interfere with his attention to his creative work. He too will die without having passed on his genetic gifts. Rather appallingly, in his case, he has no relatives who are bearing children - so his entire line is dying out, with him. I find it strange that he doesn't see tragedy in this.

There are many such bright, gifted, elderly people without children in this world. It has become almost fashionable to be "unencumbered" and able to focus exclusively on one's own interests. I think all who are like this have missed the point of life - which is that it must continue, that the line must not be broken and that one must have children, who in turn have children. Otherwise, all that one is, will pass and be no more.

My friends are all very gifted, but it saddens me that they have all either decided against children or never found the right relationship in which to have them. All that they are, will pass away and there will be no more like them. Some of them have very special gifts, but all that will be gone.

This trend began with the widespread availability of contraception in the early 19th century. It has spread throughout the world with the more intelligent of each population being more likely to have few or no children. Thus it is that the world is becoming dumber each generation (see the detailed work of Richard Lynn in this regard).

The future of Man cannot be a gifted future, a bright future, a creative future if its gifted members don't raise families. What can be seen now is that Man is in decline. The day might come when Man's civilization itself might fail for the want of intelligent people to sustain it.

The old and childless might have their reasons for being so. Yet, they are doing the future of Man a disservice if they also happen to have any special gift of any kind. The future needs such gifts.

In the light of this, I am very content to be a father. Yes, it is true that being so interferes with one's own interests, work and passions. Yes, it is true that those who have chosen to be childless have more freedoms - but, at the same time, there is a lot that they miss. Live is richer and more rewarding for a parent than a non-parent. There is a lot I get to see, witness and understand that my childless friends never do and never will. On balance, being a parent is a richer experience than being a non-parent. Even knowing the "advantages" that my childless friends have, I would not swap my situation for theirs. Indeed, having known my situation, were I placed in their situation, I would mourn for the life I had lost.

It is true that my old, gifted and childless friends are enjoying their lives. They are creating interesting things. But are they missing out on something deeper? Have they missed the real point of life? Will they come to regret what they have omitted to create: a child of their own?

I know, I would.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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