First, off you needed about 5 “in the US”’s above.
Second: you’re part of the problem. If you want to discuss socio-cultural-polical problems in the US, discuss them
as such. Say “we have problems with populations of the urban poor”. We have problems with the urban poor too, and they don’t coincide with race. Given the way you have described the problem above, your initial approach of kicking off discussion of the problem by talking about genetic differences is exactly the wrong one -- it will block off sensible discussion, and it isn’t the real issue anyway.
Furthermore, the fact that it’s politically impossible to talk about this [..] in this blog post by Walter Mead.
Sure seems possible for Mr Mead.
For another example, consider the campaign to force Rhodesia to accept majority rule. Given the subsequent history of Zimbabwe this campaign almost certainly resulted in a worse situation for everyone involved.
Your point being what? That democracy is always bad? That Africans can’t ever govern themselves? That liberals are always wrong? You can’t come to any of those sweeping conclusions from the one example of
Zimbabwe. It’s an exception.
First, off you needed about 5 “in the US”’s above.
Second: you’re part of the problem. If you want to discuss socio-cultural-polical problems in the US, discuss them as such. Say “we have problems with populations of the urban poor”. We have problems with the urban poor too, and they don’t coincide with race. Given the way you have described the problem above, your initial approach of kicking off discussion of the problem by talking about genetic differences is exactly the wrong one -- it will block off sensible discussion, and it isn’t the real issue anyway.
Sure seems possible for Mr Mead.
Your point being what? That democracy is always bad? That Africans can’t ever govern themselves? That liberals are always wrong? You can’t come to any of those sweeping conclusions from the one example of Zimbabwe. It’s an exception.
Mead is just some random blogger. Witness the reaction that occurred when Philadelphia magazine published an article on a similar topic.