Saturday, January 9, 2016

IQ and Civilization

Why has there been a civilization in Eastern Asia for centuries now but not a single cropping up in sub-Saharan Africa?

It is a good question and one that needs to be addressed.  Unfortunately, the West doesn’t want to confront this simple dichotomy because it would bring up subjects which run counter to hapless idealism.

Basically, it would be racist to think about such things in the minds of most white people.

What I believe is that it mainly comes down to IQ and location.  In sub-Saharan Africa, you basically have a place with no seasons.  As such, you have no incentive to plan ahead too much.  So tribalism rules the day and low-IQ people are allowed to breed with impunity and without suffering the consequences of their more destructive behavior.

As a race, the Chinese (yes, I know there are different types of Chinese but I don’t care to know them any more than they care to understand the different between a redneck and a hipster) have a much higher IQ than just about everyone else in the world.  This doesn’t make them superior as many of their focus tends to be more technical.

The point is, though, is that people with higher IQs tend to plan ahead.  In other words, they have low time preference, a critical feature of any civilization.

History plays this out.  People who have higher IQs tend to build civilization while people who do not end up engaging in tribalism near constantly.

Is IQ the only factor?  Probably not.  Like I mentioned before, there is the environment you live in.  If your only seasons are sun and rain, then you’re not going to concern yourself with what you need to do to stay alive for the next few years.  Because food, while difficult to obtain, can still be gathered in an area that grows plants constantly.

I’m sure there are other things that I am missing but the main thing is having a majority of people who are intelligent enough to stave off pleasures and focus on what they need to do in order to secure the future.

And this is what drives men to build cities, to engineer new technologies to provide more for people, and to allow people to become what they want without the distraction of the predator clawing at their tents.