The lesson should not be lost that most of the Anbar Province in Iraq now (Sept. '07)
cooperates with the American forces. Tribal leaders there became disenchanted with
dissidents such as al Qaeda and saw the American forces as more friendly than the
dissidents; tribal leaders threw in their lot with the American forces with the result that
their young men now voluntneer for Iraqi armed forces assignments despite the central
government being predominantly controlled by Shiites. The enemy of my enemy is my
friend, so tribes in concert reached the conclusion their best interest lay in cooperation.
Neither should it be forgotten that tribes in Anbar Province are largely Sunni Muslim --
there is no mixing since the tribal leader determines the religious affiliation of tribal
members -- who historically regard Shiite Muslims as infidels (and vice versa, Shiites
regard Sunnis as infidels). While Baghdad may have been mixed Sunni and Shiite under
the Saddam government, my understanding is that it has been largely divided into Shiite
and Sunni neighborhoods with physical barriers between. Tribes! The notion of a unified
central government is unrealistic while tribal loyalties prevail.
Similarly, the invasion of Afghanistan would not have been possible without cooperation
of tribal leaders in the north -- the Northern Alliance. Tribes! And word from Pakistan
is that mountainous regions bordering Afghanistan are controlled by the various tribes
living there since the central government has largely ceded control to tribal leaders.
Tribes!
We are fortunate in this country that the manner of occupation foreclosed tribal
identifications, and ethnicities are so mixed (other than black/white) that we scarcely
recognize their existence, much less their impact.
Your BACK button will take you back to the essay on
foreign relations (if you came from there).
Education
The debate about IQ has little to do with innate worth. IQ tests were originally developed
to forecast how well a student would perfrom in the academic environment; it has done that
remarkably well, and a markedly lower IQ does indeed translate into slower classroom
progress. But we mistake when we insist that this somehow relates to the person's worth
or ability to contribute to society. In fact, our religions tell us that, before deity, all
are equal. High IQ represents a potential only; there is no assurance its possession will
produce noticeable or worthwhile results.
But, make no mistake; IQ does indeed have its place in our affairs. Where it predicts
slow progress in academic pursuits, the academic program should be modified to
accommodate the student. Whether or not there is a characteristic difference between
races, it is a mistake to insist that all should learn with equal rapidity and therefore all
should be exposed to the same learning environment. If we wish students to master the
materials presented to them, we have no choice but accommodate their differences in
learning speed; to do otherwise is to consign slow learners to lack of mastery or confront
faster learners with deadly repetition and boredom. I have seen first hand the result of
insisting that age alone should determine grade level in school. Let me elaborate:
Personal observation: I had two children in grade school when an ill-advised Federal
program resulted in their school flipping from white to black in one school year. (At the
time it was common for 'white flight' to deplete a neighborhood of whites once blacks
gained a foothold in a neighborhood.) They were doing well and their teachers reported
satisfactory progress at the beginning of the year. But as the year progressed and more
children their own age, who were woefully unprepared for that grade level, were assigned
to their classroom, they rapidly rose to become classroom prodigies. There was no thought
given to creating a learning environment for them; their teacher did not have time; but
they were expected to tutor their classmates. Had grade level been achieved by mastering
their earlier grades, there would have been no performance gap; but assignment to grade
by age precluded consideration of scholastic attainment. Ultimately it led to graduating
from high school everyone who succeeded in staying in school those 12 years even though
uniformly deficient in preparation for the world of work and certainly not prepared to
advance to college-level courses.
Whatever median exists for any racial group, the shape of the bell curve for that group is
the same as the shape for any other group, with some at abysmal levels of performance and
some extremely high achievers. Every race has its slow learners; every race has its
brilliant members. Supposing two racial groups with medians two standard deviations apart,
the lower 1/4 of the higher-median group rank below the upper 1/4 of the lower-median group.
Measured IQ, by whatever method, would help administrators disregard race and assign
students where they are most likely to be successful.
It is the enforced mandate, by Federal government, that races shall be mixed with no
regard for tradition or ability, that has destroyed our public schools and led to abysmal
scholastic performances. Requiring that prepared and unprepared be mixed simply because
they are of different races has led to deplorable standards of conduct and lack of incentive
on the part of administrators, teachers and students alike, as well as the more capable
young people shying away from education as a career.
Economics
It has always been about money. Even the War for Southern Separation was heavily
influenced by money, with Wall Street retarding the Northern effort because of investments
in cotton from the South. Of course, the boll weevil would have taken care of that without
the war.
I recall well the Federal Trade Commission controlling railway and trucking rates, and rates
were kept punitive to the South until Gov. Hermann Talmadge won his freight rate case for
the State of Georgia (about 1945), after which there was a flurry of industrial expansion in
the South. I have interpreted events as New England's vested old money (based initially on
real estate holdings) interests, who for decades after the War for Southern Separation
dominated our national politics, controlling the Federal government agencies for their own
financial gain (and retarding southern development was certainly in their selfish interest
since New England does not compete well weather-wise in desirable living conditions)
until the courts were forced to recognize the discriminatory nature of freight rates based
on region rather than cost of operation.
Again, New England liberals sought to use Federal legislation to impose a financial burden
through control of welfare as late as the 1970s. There was at the time a generous housing
program for the "under-privileged" -- Negroes -- in which the Feds paid their interest --
which comprise the greater portion of mortgage payments -- for two years, plus awarding
$2000 per family for appliances and furnishings. I was personally affected, as described
above under education. The economic impact of that program was to create a real estate
boom in areas north of Atlanta and catapulting Atlanta into the position of a major
financial center, I am sure much to the chagrin of proponents of the program.
We tried to remain in the community and, in cooperation with the PTA, sponsored a candy
sale. We also tried to foster Boy Scout programs, but the blacks were little inclined to
let their youngsters join a white-led troop. I could not conscientiously take part in a
demonstration against a grocery store that chose to close because theft became so rampant
they could not realize a profit. Beyond that I was discriminated against by my new
neighbors, who were obviously unaccustomed to mixed neighborhoods and could not
accommodate a white family in their midst. So we sold our house and moved.
(Interestingly enough, the For Sale sign stayed in the yard only one day because a man who
had travelled the road daily had envied the house and immediately signed a contract. I
was amused that the FHA required a new roof; the roofers laughed when they told me the
roof in place had more remaining life than the guaranteed life of the one they were
installing. I was not amused to realize it was more Federal insanity intended to punish
whites for their financial success in owning a house -- justified under the theory that
blacks were unable to care for their own property.)
Housing
Let me repeat a suggestion I made years ago: We should undertake an experiment in public
housing for blacks, based on tribal living. I have been in homes built for Western man but
occupied by Negroes and noted what appears to me an adaptation to tribal life. Multiple
occupancy of single-family units is the norm; distinct family lineages seem unimportant;
individual privacy is not unnecessary but is not sought; few adults seem to have acquired
the complete set of skills needed to maintain a single-family dwelling. Perhaps we do
these people an injustice in trying to impose Western community organization on them.
And it may well be that American Indians (Amerinds) would also benefit from such an
arrangement.
After a neighborhood, through which I walked occasionally going to our church, became
predominantly black, I noted that driveway after driveway had several cars. I marvelled at
the financial success of the occupants to have a car for each family member. I later
learned that each house had multiple families, and at most one car per family. A 3-bedroom
house with 3, 4 or 5 families.
In most neighborhoods there became two means by which I knew if the neighborhood was
predominantly black: 1) Where there was little breeze I could smell the scorched hair
where blacks used petrolatum and a curling iron to straighten their naturally-curly hair;
and 2) Yards were neglected.
Welfare
The notion, fostered by farmers and companies wanting low-paid workers, that immigrants
do jobs that Americans don't want, may be partly true, but it is based on fallacious thinking.
The truth is that the marginal improvement in income when holding a job, compared with the
bounty for indolence, makes working unattractive. Those with enough gumption take part in
the shadow economy, where pay is not taxed, or in the drug economy, where they don't dare
declare income. And those who prefer indolence still have 24 hours per day and no useful
purpose to occupy their time, making a breeding ground for violence and crime.
We have created a culture of children birthing children. I have heard it many times that
abuse within the family makes independence attractive, and becoming pregnant (which,
incidentally, guarantees her an income from welfare) offers the easiest and fastest route
for a young girl to seek independence.
I have wondered, and cannot visualize a means to learn, how many of the welfare recipients
from New Orleans, who were displaced by the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, found it
necessary to seek jobs and therefore left the welfare roles. Obviously it was never the
case they could not work and therefore warranted welfare, but it was easier to go on the
welfare roles than to gain employable skills. (Well over a year after Katrina there were large
numbers of refugees from the storm who were quite content to live in government-furnished
accommodations on government-provided stipends -- until the program was discontinued.)
We do the able-bodied no favor in providing an income while allowing idleness.
Professional Racists
There are a number of people, notably blacks, who earn their livelihoods by continually
fostering campaigns to encourage racial animosities based on perceived injustices. I need
not name names; they are all too familiar.
That is not to say there are no injustices; there are, not only white against black but black
against white, white against white and black against black; but whites also cringe and seek
restoration of justice, especially when it is white against black. (White-against-white and
black-against-black is usually reported as, simply, crime. Black-against-white rarely
reaches public attention, and, when it does, the racial aspect is disguised as much as
possible; I suppose this disparity is intended to avoid attention by the professional
blacks, who quickly respond to other -- supposedly -- racially-inspired injustices.)
End
I am out of time and inspiration.