Equality, Elitism and Civilization

Epistle to the Babylonians: An Essay on the Natural Inequality of Man By Charles L. Fontenay University of Tennessee, $6.25 “The battle which we once had to fight with the whole battery at our command, with the most fantastic and startling examples that we could muster, is now won.” Thus spake Margaret Mead, doyenne of modern anthropology, some thirty years ago. The victory, of course, was environmentalism. And the prize of battle? Biological human nature is so limitlessly plastic that it is helpless to resist environmental conditioning, while the latter clearly outvotes genetic, racial, and even universal sex-role differences. It is a triumph of political ideology.

An ideology remains established because it protects certain interests, perhaps wealth and position or reputation for some, for others notoriety and an irresponsible posture of pure intention. But for a majority, the only interest an established ideology protects is a closed mind. Most people, highly educated ones not excepted, cling to whatever exclusionary and simplistic explanations they have been taught. It is in their interest to do so; only a very few people can bear the thought that the final evidence on complex issues may never be in, and live with the itch to poke holes in accepted dogma.

AG

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Arnold W. Green

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Epistle to the Babylonians: An Essay on the Natural Inequality of Man By Charles L. Fontenay University of Tennessee, $6.25 “The battle which we once had to fight with the whole battery at our command, with the most fantastic and startling examples that we could muster, is now won.” Thus spake Margaret Mead, doyenne of modern anthropology, some thirty years ago. The victory, of course, was environmentalism. And the prize of battle? Biological human nature is so limitlessly plastic that it is helpless to resist environmental conditioning, while the latter clearly outvotes genetic, racial, and even universal sex-role differences. It is a triumph of political ideology.

An ideology remains established because it protects certain interests, perhaps wealth and position or reputation for some, for others notoriety and an irresponsible posture of pure intention. But for a majority, the only interest an established ideology protects is a closed mind. Most people, highly educated ones not excepted, cling to whatever exclusionary and simplistic explanations they have been taught. It is in their interest to do so; only a very few people can bear the thought that the final evidence on complex issues may never be in, and live with the itch to poke holes in accepted dogma.