Charles Murray (1) (1943–)

One of Murray's better books. The point is that some White Americans are dispensing with the cultural background and actions that made America so great and the middle class so good and robust. The result is some people (even liberals) are working hard, marrying before kids, being thrifty, not doing drugs, and the other people are doing the opposite. Murray forgets that computers, robotization, mechanization have changed what we eat, where we live, what we buy by lowering costs dramatically. This changes what some people can buy and have access to. For instance, the idea of "craft beer" and a latte in 1960 is laughable. For 2010, it's what some people want and can get. Point: work hard and be a good person.

Key quote, from page 293: "The new upper class still does a good job of practicing some of the virtues, but it no longer preaches them. It has lost self-confidence in the rightness of its own customs and values, and preaches nonjudgmentalism instead."… (mer)

The author posits two statistical "truths about race in America: (1) The mean I.Q. score between different people groups in the U.S. is leads to this distribution Asian > Caucasian > Latino > Black; and (2) the violent crime rate in different people groups is Black > Latino > Caucasian > Asian. Murray talks about many possible objections to these statistics, but the statistics seem rock solid. His main purpose is to show that current proposals to change these stats are doomed to probable failure as they do not take these stats into account, or do not perceive their real reality. Murray makes the point to state (p. 6) that: "I am not talking about superiority or inferiority, but about differences in group averages and distributions. Differences in averages do not affect the abilities of any individual. They should not affect our approach, positively or negatively, to any individual we meet." But that will not prevent anyone from accusing this book and its author or racism. I, for one, am willing to recognize the reality of these figures, but disdain any attempt to ascribe them to race, biology, or D.N.A. There are just too many exceptions and counter-examples to make the implications worthless. And, I too, like Murray, will still treat everyone as an individual on their individual merits, as we all should. The rest should be discarded. As Americans continue to "mix races" as time marches on, when will the categories of this book become mostly meaningless? Who knows? What to think of this book? I don't know.… (mer)