by Jack
When you think about the divide between the have and have not you naturally think in terms of wealth, however there’s another divide and it’s far more serious to our future.
A scientific study by Stanford University researcher and professor of pathology and developmental biology, Gerald Crabtree, shows a pronounced decline in our collective brain power. Crabtree’s study says our intelligence curve started to go down several thousand years ago with the invention of tools that impartially extended the lives of the clever and the not-so-clever. I’ve always thought dumb was on the rise, but now a Stanford research project has confirmed it.
Humans are slowly accumulating genetic mutations that will have a deleterious effect on both our intellect and emotional stability. The reason, he believes, is the relative lack of selective pressure during the past 3,000 years. He begins boldly:
I would wager that if an average citizen from Athens of 1000 BC were to appear suddenly among us, he or she would be among the brightest and most intellectually alive of our colleagues and companions, with a good memory, a broad range of ideas, and a clear-sighted view of important issues. Furthermore, I would guess that he or she would be among the most emotionally stable of our friends and colleagues.
It’s an intriguing point. I’ve recently been re-educating myself about ancient Greek history,and I’ve been newly amazed about the breadth and depth of the philosophy and ideas propounded by people thousands of years ago.
Crabtree calculates that between 2,000 to 5,000 genes are likely required to maintain optimal intellectual acuity and emotional well-being. Extending his theory, it’s likely that we’ve each accumulated at least two harmful mutations during the intervening millennia. According to Crabtree:
It is also likely that the need for intelligence was reduced as we began to live in supportive societies that made up for lapses of judgment or failures of comprehension. Community life would, I believe, tend to reduce the selective pressure placed on every individual, every day of their life.
After reading Crabtree’s paper the first two questions that came to mind were, if we’re getting dumber how would we know? And, “…so why aren’t smart people breeding more?”
Despite the best efforts of our government to protect everyone from everything, we seem to be leading the world in terms of dangerous dumbness. I think there’s a nexus here, perhaps with all our safety nets we’re making it too easy for the dumb not to become a Darwinian statistic?
The headlines are filled with all sorts dumbness, “SWAT team raids wrong house”, “Burglars tunnel into doughnut shop, miss bank” and this gem…”Residents of an Ohio town found themselves running for cover yesterday, when their neighbors unwittingly sprayed their homes with bullets while target shooting with AK-47s.” See what I mean? We didn’t really need that study to tell us we’re in trouble now did we?
Unfortunately, the people among us that engage in stupid behavior also tend to be the most likely to have babies (immediate gratification types with no accountability for their actions). Which comes back to one of my first thoughts, is it really that tough for smart people to find a match so they too can have babies? I suppose it doesn’t help that smart people tend to be somewhat quirky and socially awkward with the opposite sex. But, it’s difficult not to be awkward when todays role models think a drunken menage a trois is perfectly acceptable behavior. These people could be a sports hero or a politician, and Holltwood types…forget it, they are the poster children for stupid, reckless behavior. But, it’s especially disconcerting when it’s our leaders in Washington are the ones lowering the bar, both mentally and morally.
Ironically, as all this dumbness is going on right when we’re in an age of unprecedented access to so much education, thanks in part to the internet. You would think the internet would be a grand tool to raise our collective brain power exponentially, right? Not reall. Rather than profiting from this information bonanza, we’re using it more for playing games, for porn addicts, or tweeting or twitting…even the bright kids fall prey to these abuses. As a result of centuries of dilluting the ol gene pool, our current society is suffering from a sort of arrested development.
What I’ve learned from Crabtree’s research can be summed up like this: The village idiots are breeding like rabbits and the geeks aren’t. Some day soon the idiots are going to represent such large portion of us that even the most brilliant and wealthy givers won’t be able to support them. Hey, wait a sec, that sounds just like the majority of people in California.
There’s our great divide and it can’t be solved by anything Occupy Wall Street has to offer or the liberals in Washington.