The Recantation of Dr. Watson
For Dr. James Watson, 79-year-old co-winner of the 1962 Nobel Prize for medicine for his discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, October marked the nadir of a brilliant career.
The month began with Watson headed to London to promote his new book, "Avoid Boring People: Lessons From a Life in Science," and to lecture to a sold-out audience at the prestigious Science Museum. An author's dream tour.
Last week, his lecture was canceled, his tour terminated, his 40-year tenure as chancellor of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island came to an end. Across Britain, he was being denounced as a racist.
What had the wicked Dr. Watson done?
Did he defend the chattel slavery in which five of our first seven presidents engaged? No. Did he agree with Abraham Lincoln that blacks did not deserve equal social and political rights and should be sent back to the continent whence their ancestors came? No. Did he argue for the segregation that was the law in the nation's capital in which this writer grew up? No. Did he utter the "N-word" used by Harry Truman, who integrated the armed forces, and Lyndon Johnson, who enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965? No.
Watson neither endorsed segregation nor expressed any animus toward people of color. He had simply told The Sunday Times he was "inherently gloomy about the prospects of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really."
While there is a natural desire to believe all people are equal, Watson said, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."
In his new book, Watson adds, "There is no firm reason to anticipate that the intellectual capacities of peoples geographically separated in their evolution should prove to have evolved identically. Our wanting to reserve equal powers of reason as some universal heritage of humanity will not be enough to make it so."
What Watson was saying was: From a long life and his own reading of IQ test scores, he believes that intelligence is not distributed equally among the races. That conclusion was also reached by social scientists Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray in the 1990s best-seller "The Bell Curve." The SAT scores seem to bear them out.
When Watson's remarks hit print, however, a new London blitz began.
The Labor Party chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee charged Watson with "baseless, unscientific and extremely offensive comments" and urged his colleagues to "reject what appear to be Dr. Watson's personal prejudices."
"Anti-racism campaigners called for Dr. Watson's remarks to be looked at in the context of racial hatred laws," said The Independent. Said Steven Rose, a founder of the Society for Social Responsibility in Science, "This is Watson at his most scandalous."
The Telegraph quoted Koku Adomdza, director of the black pressure group The 1990 Trust, as calling Watson a "complete dinosaur" and demanding he apologize to "Africa and all people of African origin."
Added Adomdza: "Dr. Watson is really a relic of the oldest stock and deserves to be made to account for his extremely offensive and ignorant remarks. ... His very poisonously racist opinions put students and the unsuspecting public at serious risk."
Of these thought police, almost all, it may be fairly said, are academic mediocrities or political hacks who could not carry Watson's microscope. Yet as the scrub stock piled on, the Nobel Prize winner appeared to buckle.
I am "mortified," Watson said, burbling this recantation.
"To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly. That is not what I meant. More importantly, from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief."
Sad. Why, with all his honors, prestige and security, did Dr. Watson feel the necessity to apologize for what he wrote, said and believes? Why did he not play the man by flipping off the censors? If they were going to take away his chancellorship, why not go down fighting?
In the England of Henry VIII, heretics were beheaded and their heads put on spikes. Many men, like Thomas More, did not recant.
From the time of Tiberias to the 17th century, men gave up their lives rather than renounce a belief in God. Others gave up their lives rather than renounce a disbelief in the Church. Why could Watson not stand up for his disbelief in the ideological myth of the inherent equality of all men, cultures, creeds and civilizations?
In 1990, the respected journal Science wrote, "To many in the scientific community, Watson has been something of a wild man. ... Colleagues tend to hold their collective breath when he speaks out."
Too bad the wild man was denatured and domesticated.
COPYRIGHT 2007 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
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Let's see how well Sid could rattle off all his obscure historical references if his IQ was 85. Grow up Sid. Your pathetic defense of PC orthodoxy is embarrassing.
On average, North East Asian (not all Asians) are smarter than Whites, but you have to wonder if there are not more White geniuses (especially verbal) just as there are many more male geniuses than female, especially at the extremes. As Livingston says, a hugely disproportionate share of the great achievements of mankind have come from the West. Murray has demonstrated this.
Some of this may be due to Western Christianity. Some may be due to Jewish contributions in the West. Some may be due to our relative freedom. Some may be our innovative spirit. But I doubt there are as many Asians who are extremely brilliant. Has this been studied?
Billy Bob
By the way Sid, don't deal with the supposed implications of what Watson said. Deal with whether it is true or false. Facts and truth are not determined by implications you don't like. Show me a study that supports that black IQs are equal to White. Don't debunk. Show me a study that supports your side.
Billy Bob
I believe it is disingenous and hypocritical to attack the state of affairs in Africa or other "developing countries" and infer that the cause is a deficiency of intelligence. This corrupt world run by liars and con-artists who exploit and manipulate everybody under the sun do not possess superior brains, though they most likely have access to knowledge not available to the "profane", it is they who interfere with and attempt to indoctrinate the rest of the world into accepting their prescribed version of reality.
The a-priori of the equation is that the system being imported/exported is "superior", therefore those who do not comprehend this "fact" or when results contradict the advertised objective it is deduced that the indigenous individuals involved are incompetent and inferior. How convenient.
To expect an inherrently corrupt system to produce an uncorrupted result defies logic and experience.
The system is "superior" only in terms of creating a world-wide plantation state. And there is a method to the madness, it is called the institutionalization of conflict of interest-- whereby the "problem-solvers" become the "problem-creators". Ordo Ab Chao...
@For what it's worth
I have my doubts if we can consider you as a true spokesman for saint-Paul
And Henry VIII ? Well, I guess that if this tyrant had died in 1533, he would have been canonized as Roman Saint : untill 1533 this "defender of the faith" murderded (with the assistance of his fellow butcher "saint" Thomas More) only true "heretics" as Thomas Bilney , John Frith and many other (proto-)protestants.
I cannot defend the burning at stake of men on the sole basis of their religious beliefs, although it is difficult to condemn burnings of old as motivated by sadistic viciousness. To them, heresy meant a breach in the social order, and in many cases it was an overreaction; in others, not. Where Henry VIII was particularly evil, as compared with his contemporaries and successors, was in his obvious cynicism with regard to religious authority.
The gist of the matter is Dr. Watson caved in to PC liberals. Though his statements are based in ignorance. Africa's problems are not because they do not score well on tests or do not have enough "intelligence" to run a democracy. Does government really take that much "intelligence"? You've got to be kidding. Though education would certainly help, especially in history. I am no Africa expert but their problems seem to be Corruption, lack of infrastructure, regional and tribal disputes ie.. wars ( which always set an developing country back)and yes illiteracy. Dr. Watson's sweeping generalization does not adequately describe Africa's situation. Lack of character and illiteracy will bring any nation down just look at the U.S. I guess I am just inherently gloomy at the prospects of America. Well after l looking at the comments again I see where his ignorance is based -- Evolution. Evolution and racism go hand in hand, a good book to read is "Evolution's Fatal Fruit" by Tom DeRosa its at http://WWW.AmericanVision.org you can also get a free 1-year subscription to a Biblical Worldview Magazine at AmericanVision.org
in reference to #49. mazda is not top of the line and japanese cars are still better and toyota will soon be the worlds top auto company. perhaps the mazda was assembled by north koreans. Incidentally Japan also has unions.
C'mon Pat - why are you of all people doing defending a socialistic practice such as IQ testing? That pompous little creep Charles Murray is not the originator of the "Bell Curve" and the next time he has an original thought it will be his first. By the way James watson scores only a few points above average on standard IQ tests- I believe he scored 115. If all the hoopla about IQ tests meant anything-why is it that blacks excell in music, public speaking, education among other things?
You people are almost uniformly ignorant and stupid. The correlation between scores on modern IQ tests and what most literate people recognize as 'intelligence' is extremely high - and has been confirmed repeatedly. Of course, the kind of analytic problem solving ability required to score highly on such tests is hardly identical with what we authentic men of the Right recognize as constituting 'wisdom'. Liberals are fools, but some clearly possess high intelligence.
The more important issue is the survival of the West. Our civilization is what we conservatives are suposed to be conserving. Whether the white man is more intelligent than other races (and we are, at least in the Nordic sub-race: the highest national IQs are in Germany, The Netherlands and Denmark) is ultimately irrelevant. What matters is our desire to maintain our racial purity against alien admixture, and our concomitant concern to preserve both the culture of our ancestors, as well as the high quality of life which whites everywhere have achieved, but is now threatened by the ever-larger presence of non-whites coercively integrated into our midst.
The one solution to all our racial (and many other) problems is simple: TOTAL SEPARATION. Stop immigration, and then begin the racial cleansing / forcible deportation of all non-whites (at least out of Europe, where they have no place; ideally out of the US as well, thereby in the latter case going a long way toward fulfilling the original vision of Pres. Jefferson for what can be called the Aryan Republic). If whites are too weak to accomplish this cleansing, then our race will soon become extinct, in conformity to inexorable biological law.
"You people"? Yeah, real nice Mr.Smith or I should I call you der Fuhrer. Wow, is this the make up of Chronicles subscribers? Some of them are some scary people.
When oh when will one prominent person choose not to
cave in to the PC barbarians? At least a man as far along in
years as Dr Watson should be able to afford the criticism.
In a semi-related subject: Did you notice that the LA Dodgers
just hired Joe Torre after getting an official MLB exemption from
interviewing a minority? Here is reality breaking through:
when an organization wants to succeed, they bypass the
affirmative action fantasies and just hire the best.
Re comment #62 above:
"You people" obviously refers to the writers of the previous comments. What is wrong with that?
And, do you disagree that non-whites have no place at least in Europe? And can you refute any of my statements?
Anyone who fails to recognize these truths is 'scary'.
Jack...............................How true!......An enormous industry, the multi-billion-dollar Sports Industry has been held to NO standards such as the steel industry, service industry, manufacturing, etc.....It is the ONLY INDUSTRY functioning in America based on merit, performance, and the ability to create results!......And I have always felt that no truer form of descrimination exists than the NBA bias against short, fat, white boys! If they opperated like other industries, the game of basketball would be changed by court order to a 10 player game with 5 short, fat, white boys on the court at all times with the other athletes. The owners would be responsible for the additional labor costs and changes in the rules! I'm also looking forward to more black PBR "Bull Riders".
You bet I disagree. So I suppose non-blacks have no place at least in Africa and non-yellows in the far east and non-brown in south america and intelligent non-rascist people posting on Chronicles:)~ "Can you refute my statements?" Well can you, can you, hunh can you? Yeah moron 1) Their beliefs, not factual statements that "happen"to be just like hitlers. 2) I could find all kinds of scientific evidence that no one race is superior to the others and should undergo "racial cleansing". All kinds of atrocities have been perpetrated under that LIE. But there is no use casting pearls before rascist,ignorant,pagans/swine. The funny thing is you are just aiding and abetting the enemy ie.. liberals/communists all the while thinking you are conservative.
Re:66 from Anthony:
You are obviously a race traitor - perhaps one with some filthy sexual attraction to the alien races. Or are you a sodomite? Your pathetic, hysteric, obviously low-IQ response (certainly as evinced when compared to my writing) to my recitation of mere, irrefutable empirical facts suggests you probably have emotional problems routed in sexual dysfunction. Don't worry, though: when the Real Right reclaims America your kind of sicko will be the very first we eliminate. Day of the rope.
PS - Read Pat Buchanan's very moderate STATE OF EMERGENCY and learn something, you moronic appeaser.
PPS - Why does the website of an intellectual, allegedly (and very loudly self-proclaimed) open-minded yet academically disciplined publication like CHRONICLES publish such illiterate, sub-100 IQ garbage like that of "Anthony" immediately above - while constantly censoring well-expressed comments from serious, elite-credentialled intellectuals to the magazine's Right? Political correctness comes in many flavors, I guess.
"Day of the Rope?" Real nice SICKO. Everyone can now see your just an arrogant horses ass.
"... Why does the website of an intellectual, allegedly (and very loudly self-proclaimed) open-minded yet academically disciplined publication like CHRONICLES publish such illiterate, sub-100 IQ garbage ..."
For the same reason they did publish your own - fitting exactly that description.
This is the problem with attention to this sort of thing, there is nothing you can do about race. It is not a profitable topic of discussion. Worse yet, a lot of bad can come of it.
Culturism is a much more profitable topic of discusion. Inner City black culture is a mess. It is largely a mess because people do not know much about human nature. Culturist anthropology tells us that if you do not give people guidelines and guidance concerning values and etiquette, they will often form violent cliques based ruled by the most violent male.
If you do not practice positive culturism you shouldn't expect anything but the behavior you have. Discussing this subject in terms of race does not help.
For at least 20 years I have seen references to studies showing intelligence and race relationships as Asian Euro African (1,2,3,). Yet I struggle on. For over 20 years I labored in a culturally and racially divers work force. I was never convinced of intelligence being a main factor in accoplishment or ability to work as a team. Maybe I missed something.
"...never convinced of intelligence being a main factor in accoplishment or ability to work as a team."
Conclusion:
"Working as a team" crap is for stupid people.
Pat Buchanan is not a Roman Catholic. He is a member of the Episcoplian Church, which is the Church of England in America.
Pat Buchanan is a traditionalist Catholic. Why would anyone make a point-blank false statement that can be so easily refuted? More evidence of the deleterious effects of the blogosphere on the American mind. Just back from France, where I noted very few people on laptops and a singular lack of public internet access. More proof of their superiority. The first thing I noticed on the O'Hare to Rockford shuttle was four of the fattest women you can imagine--each one fatter than every single person I saw in France for two weeks--all gabbing inanities on their cell phones.