Animal Breeding

My uncle always said "what really matters is your dam and your sire". A sentiment easily accepted by a horse-breeder, who daily risks his capital on this proposition; and even a pure mathematician would rate that as rigorous proof.

It's called eugenics: breeding for desired characteristics in an animal population. We're animals, so it can be done unto us as well. What's a desired characteristic in our case? Red hair? Stamina? Shyness? Good looks? Well, there is a school of thought that believes the purpose of mankind is to become more intelligent. If we settle on intelligence, i.e., the ability to solve problems, how is it 'increased' in a natural population?

• by a directed eugenics policy
• by appropriate internal traditions (dos and don'ts) and appropriate responses from the external world, i.e., natural eugenics

There is a tribe (over-publicised in these pages, so I wont tire you with its name once again) which followed the second way. It

• viewed itself as the only 'chosen people'
• was ordered to 'go forth and multiply'
• respected learning and the gifted scholar
• was pressured by a hostile world for nearly two millennia; consequently, only their most talented (and mobile) sons were able to flourish

In their culture, a rich man's daughter could marry a poor scholar, thus sending both energy and intellect into the next generation (with reasonable luck). In the 20th century, this unnamed race has taken an astonishing proportion of science Nobel Prizes.

I hope I've indicated how this happened.

Yet some of them, and many others, oppose eugenics. Their arguments can be summed up in one word: Hitler. Well, I've got good news for them... he's dead.

In fact, a Eugenics scheme has been in operation in tough-minded America since the 70's; where the physical characteristics and superior intellectual attainments of the sperm donors are matched to the requirements of women volunteers. The director of the scheme has reported, sadly, that the most gifted contributors aren't the most popular. Women do prefer tall, good-looking men, even when genius is on offer.

The only known donor is William Shockley, a Nobel Prizeman in physics and erstwhile activist for non-child benefits (to be paid to Blacks for not having children).

Do our traditions measure up?

The problem is that unconventional behaviour has long been fashionable among our 'top five percent,' including a distinct tendency to bachelorhood (and worse). The lack of a Christian injunction to multiply and the monastic lifestyle once promoted in the colleges of our famous universities, has almost amounted to a dis-eugenics tradition.

As my school report used to say there is room for improvement here.

But what purpose does intelligence serve in a community? Basically, our standard and quality of living depends on us solving technical problems better or faster than anyone else. So, logically, the more of these analytic types we produce, the more high-level problems will get solved by us. Because resources are finite and national safety will always demand military preparedness, the particular economic system used will not remove this need.

Of course, this doesn't preclude Distributism or Ruralism which, in the first instance, will give a meaning to it all and then create a much finer lifestyle for everyone.

Finally, remember that while most of us don't have stratospheric IQ's do lead socially responsible lives. Indeed, suppression of the childish ego and the discipline necessary to maintain this state, is certainly as important to civilisation's level as the mind of a Shakespeare, Michelangelo or Gauss is to its peaks.