L. RON HUBBARD: HOW HIS WORK HAS INFLUENCED THE WORLD
THE QUESTION OF MAN’S INTELLECTUAL ABILITIES
Prior to 1950, popular thinking held that man’s intelligence was fixed. The growing influence of materialistic science and its “man from mud” theories had stripped man of his soul and redefined man as an animal, no more than the sum of his genes. Stimulated by Darwinian theory of inherited attributes, variation in intelligence became the subject of intense study throughout the end of the nineteenth century. Prevailing thought, as most famously forwarded by Darwin’s younger cousin, Sir Francis Galton, held that intelligence was hereditary and largely monopolized by Britain’s first families. “Social Darwinism” proved that the most financially and socially successful owed their positions to genetic superiority. And shackled by genetic inferiority, the destitute deserved their lot. In the extreme, such thinking eventually led to a Third Reich eugenics program, complete with wholesale sterilization and plans for selective breeding. But even in less totalitarian terms, the thinking permeated society: One’s intelligence was unalterably defined by genetic code.
A fairly representative statement on the matter, published in 1951, espoused the prevailing party line: “We believe that you can help your child make the most of his intelligence if you have a good idea of what it is. You don’t have to know his IQ – we’ll talk about that later – but you should at least be sure as to whether or not your child is superior.”
General thinking on the subject was firm: Intelligence, as measured by the standard IQ tests, was determined by birth, and with it was determined the general course of one’s life – whether rich or poor, white collar or blue.
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