underestimates?

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Sat Oct 13 12:14:04 PDT 2001


On Sat, 13 Oct 2001, Doug Henwood wrote:


> Carl Remick wrote:
>
> >In addition, as in contemporary America, the new "intellectual"
> >efforts were designed to cater to the masses, until intellectual
> >life was brought down to the lowest common denominator.
>
> Oh come on. The American poopulation isn't anywhere near as dumb as
> the bourgeoisie thinks it is.
>
> Doug

I don't know if IQ tests are a valid measure of a person's capacity for intellectual life, but it's interesting that raw performance on IQ tests has increased steadily over the past 80 years in every nation where data is available. At least in terms of some cognitive abilities, the American population is not being "dumbed down" as strange bedfellows on both right and left assume.

Miles



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