FOOD FOR THOUGHT: THE POLITICS OF BIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM IN AN AGE OF RETRENCHMENT

Stephen Jay Gould, Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History (New York: Norton, 1977) (From "Racist Arguments and IQ": "If current biological determinism in the study of human intelligence rests upon no new facts (actually, no facts at all), then why has it become so popular of late? The answer must be social and political. The 1960s were good years for liberalism; a fair amount of money was spent on poverty programs and relatively little happened. Enter new leaders and new priorities. Why didn't the earlier programs work? Two possibilities are open: (1) we didn't spend enough money, we didn't make sufficiently creative efforts, or (and this makes any established leader jittery) we cannot solve these problems without a fundamental social and economic transformation of society; or (2) the programs failed because their recipients are inherently what they are--blaming the victims. Now, which alternative will be chosen by men in power in an age of retrenchment?" Id. at 243, 247. From "The Misnamed, Mistreated, and Misunderstood Irish Elk": "Extinction is the fate of most species, usually because they fail to adapt rapidly enough to changing conditions of climate or competition. Darwinian evolution decrees that no animal shall actively develop a harmful structure, but it offers no guarantee that useful structures will continue to be adaptive in changed circumstances." Id. at 79, 90.).