Oops, just finished this, by a Nigerian psychologist, minutes ago...Spend 15 minutes on how culture, nurture and IQ create Nigerian society and its (form of) capitalism.
Guest post: The Global IQ Debate: A Modest Contribution From A Resident African.
There are several core ideas in the essay but one mainstay is the propensity of Nigerians (and Africans) to choose the spiritual over the existing world
Some outtakes:
‘... if Africa has a real IQ disadvantage, I don't think it is much in the cognitive dimension. Nigerians, as you probably know, are a notoriously successful immigrant group - even after we take selection bias into account (although some data have shown that second generation diasporic Nigerians, and immigrants from third world in general, tend to regress eventually to their country of origin means).
I think if there's indeed a dysgenic factor, it must lie in some other property of the 'mind' (which I'm using to mean 'emergent brain function'). And one such property is what I would call 'Information processing', not of facts and factoids printed and presented in textbooks but of the raw unstructured reality. The kind of ongoing information processing that gives rise to how a people conceive of reality, what they think this reality, as conceptualized by them, demands of them in order to maximize its impartial offerings, and how they believe this reality should be interrogated and organized.'
Here pause for a moment to remark that according to a substantial segment of our highly educated western populace, including the UN's own A. Guterres, our planet is boiling. Our world is cooking. We are doomed. Thus these masters of theory, not of raw unstructured reality - anymore, and hello economists), prevent western banks like the EU Investment Bank from investing in gas projects in emerging markets. Condemning Indian, Nigerian and Somali women to cook on wood and dung a little longer. A few million die annually of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. So at least we’re all together in the same boat sailing our boiling oceans. Only some are condemned a little more than the others. By the others. Not because of racism or colonialism but out of goodness…
The Nigerian author continues
‘This is by far the most fundamental sense in which I think the poor countries of this world are different from the rich ones. I suspect it's less about raw cognitive capacities and more about cognitive propensities: what are the kind of questions about reality that engage the intellectual faculties of cognitively capable Africans versus their European counterparts? I also think this is one of the reasons why the success of immigrants from Africa to the West is mostly mechanical rather than organic.
…(the brother): a brain that is incredibly academically fit for purpose (but struggles to accept the scientific philosophy that underlies Western-type education), a temperament that is highly oriented towards the supernatural or the metaphysical, a character that is almost irreproachable in its self-righteousness, and a leadership capacity that's formidable in its parochial convictions.
…in Nigeria, and maybe Africa by extension, our best specimens are somehow more naturally inclined to embrace the supernatural worldview and attitude as opposed to the scientific one.
The only reason why an Einstein in the US will be different from an Einstein in Nigeria is the differences in the dominant tendencies and cultural practices between those two countries. An Einstein in Nigeria would probably die without leaving any cultural trace simply because there's no cultural selection for the kind of endeavor most suited for his particular talent. But today, the potential Einsteins of Nigeria and Africa now have the option of migrating to those cultures with centuries of experience selecting for the kind of norms and rituals that optimize their outrageous intellect.
…the two personality traits that research has shown to be most correlated with achievement are conscientiousness and openness to ideas. Nigeria, if it were a single human entity, would rank at the very lowest end of the spectrum on both traits.’
Even Marx was critical of the lumpenproletariat.
Oops, just finished this, by a Nigerian psychologist, minutes ago...Spend 15 minutes on how culture, nurture and IQ create Nigerian society and its (form of) capitalism.
Guest post: The Global IQ Debate: A Modest Contribution From A Resident African.
https://woodfromeden.substack.com/p/guest-post-the-global-iq-debate-a?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=831683&post_id=156588016&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=6mos7&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
There are several core ideas in the essay but one mainstay is the propensity of Nigerians (and Africans) to choose the spiritual over the existing world
Some outtakes:
‘... if Africa has a real IQ disadvantage, I don't think it is much in the cognitive dimension. Nigerians, as you probably know, are a notoriously successful immigrant group - even after we take selection bias into account (although some data have shown that second generation diasporic Nigerians, and immigrants from third world in general, tend to regress eventually to their country of origin means).
I think if there's indeed a dysgenic factor, it must lie in some other property of the 'mind' (which I'm using to mean 'emergent brain function'). And one such property is what I would call 'Information processing', not of facts and factoids printed and presented in textbooks but of the raw unstructured reality. The kind of ongoing information processing that gives rise to how a people conceive of reality, what they think this reality, as conceptualized by them, demands of them in order to maximize its impartial offerings, and how they believe this reality should be interrogated and organized.'
Here pause for a moment to remark that according to a substantial segment of our highly educated western populace, including the UN's own A. Guterres, our planet is boiling. Our world is cooking. We are doomed. Thus these masters of theory, not of raw unstructured reality - anymore, and hello economists), prevent western banks like the EU Investment Bank from investing in gas projects in emerging markets. Condemning Indian, Nigerian and Somali women to cook on wood and dung a little longer. A few million die annually of lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. So at least we’re all together in the same boat sailing our boiling oceans. Only some are condemned a little more than the others. By the others. Not because of racism or colonialism but out of goodness…
The Nigerian author continues
‘This is by far the most fundamental sense in which I think the poor countries of this world are different from the rich ones. I suspect it's less about raw cognitive capacities and more about cognitive propensities: what are the kind of questions about reality that engage the intellectual faculties of cognitively capable Africans versus their European counterparts? I also think this is one of the reasons why the success of immigrants from Africa to the West is mostly mechanical rather than organic.
…(the brother): a brain that is incredibly academically fit for purpose (but struggles to accept the scientific philosophy that underlies Western-type education), a temperament that is highly oriented towards the supernatural or the metaphysical, a character that is almost irreproachable in its self-righteousness, and a leadership capacity that's formidable in its parochial convictions.
…in Nigeria, and maybe Africa by extension, our best specimens are somehow more naturally inclined to embrace the supernatural worldview and attitude as opposed to the scientific one.
The only reason why an Einstein in the US will be different from an Einstein in Nigeria is the differences in the dominant tendencies and cultural practices between those two countries. An Einstein in Nigeria would probably die without leaving any cultural trace simply because there's no cultural selection for the kind of endeavor most suited for his particular talent. But today, the potential Einsteins of Nigeria and Africa now have the option of migrating to those cultures with centuries of experience selecting for the kind of norms and rituals that optimize their outrageous intellect.
…the two personality traits that research has shown to be most correlated with achievement are conscientiousness and openness to ideas. Nigeria, if it were a single human entity, would rank at the very lowest end of the spectrum on both traits.’