Saturday, August 20, 2016

Talent is not equally distributed

NY Times columnist David Brooks writes:
Moreover, America doesn’t win because we have better athletes (talent must be distributed equally). America does well because it has such great systems for preparing athletes. Medals are won by institutions as much as by individuals. The Germans have a great system for training kayakers, equestrians and throwers — the discus or javelin.
Steve Sailer responds:
Why do people say things like “talent must be distributed equally” when all the evidence of our eyes from watching the Olympics is that talent is not distributed equally? Instead, talent is distributed in complex patterns by nature, which are in turn made even more complex by nurture.

For example, Jamaica has seven medals with the sprint relays still to come, while all of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka) so far has only one bronze in any sport. Yet, South Asia has about 500 times more people than Jamaica.
Brooks regularly relies on social science research, so he ought to know better.

So why does Brooks say such silly things?

The obvious explanations are that he is ignorant, or that he has some ideological purpose. It is hard to see how someone as well-educated as Brooks could be so ignorant, or even how anyone watching the Olympics could think that talent is distributed equally.

Brooks comes from an ethnic group that teaches that they are better than everyone else, but that no other group should be allowed such feelings. They are consumed with identity politics, and they promote themselves by promoting equality and diversity in everyone else.

Speaking of the Olympics, Ryan Lochte is getting a bad rap. He really was robbed at gunpoint. A Brazilian security guard pointed a gun at him and demanded that he pay money. In the USA, that is armed robbery. Even assuming that there was something improper or unlawful about Lochte wanting to use a gas station restroom, he was not threatening anyone, and USA law would not permit a guard using a gun to extract money as compensation.

No comments: