Morlock Warriors, Eloi Citizens?
If you haven’t already, read the exchange going on in the comments section of the post below on Kaplan, Tocqueville, and the future of civil-military relations.
After having done so myself, I think perhaps Jim Rockford and Freddie can both be right at the same time:
Rockford: Except Tocqueville is wrong. What is likely (and is already happening) is that the Military will be filled with SMARTER people. The Armed Services use what is essentially an IQ test to admit candidates. What journalists, entertainers, etc. don’t get is that while anyone can and will (eventually) do their job the way say, IT has been outsourced or H1-B Visa’d, the military requires (mostly men) who can adapt quickly to extremely stressful environments and improvise to accomplish the mission.
Several conflicting mechanisms seem to be at work. On one hand, the kind of smarts in question seems to be deviating pretty firmly from the kind of smarts we privilege in civilian life. But on the other Tocqueville would remind us that creative, practical problem solving is hardwired into American habit. If we follow the yellow brick road to his dystopia of inwardness and quietude, we’d find that democratic intelligence would be much more likely a military preserve.Freddie: Except that they keep lowering the bar for those IQ tests. The number of inferior candidates entering the military grows and grows, because of the unwillingness for soldiers to fight in an unpopular war, and the consistent or escalating need for troops. Whatever deductive reasons you can think of for the military to be growing more intelligent, we have empirical data demonstrating the opposite.
During the golden age of military recruiting, from 1992 (after the military was downsized because of the collapse of the Soviet threat) through 2004 (when Iraq started to turn into a nightmare), only 1% of new enlistees scored in the bottom 30% of the population (92 or below) on the military’s AFQT IQ test. However, there weren’t that many enlistees with very high scores, so the average was maybe 105. (New officers might average 10 or 20 points higher).
So, the military isn’t made up of supersmart people, but it is made up of competent people.
— Steve Sailer · Dec 14, 01:26 AM · #
You would wonder WHY say, the US Marines, always in the thick of the fight, has met their recruiting and re-enlistment quotas with no lowering of the IQ bar? [The Army has had problems].
IMHO it has to do with the profound changes taking place in the civilian workforce. Where particularly white men are subject to outsourcing dis proportionally (others are protected class employees), and find the fairly feminine workplace uncongenial.
Success in combat DESPITE the horrific risks offers advantages over civilian life: higher achievement (particularly for unconnected, non-elite white males). Career advancement not subject to outsourcing. Cameraderie not found in the fractured workplace.
You’d wonder why white males who presumably could choose to do something else are disproportionally represented in the combat infantry of the Marines and Army. Along with Special Forces who have often even higher risk (their training alone can get people killed). Mr. Sailer is probably correct in that we won’t get perhaps the “smartest” but certainly competent men in the Armed Forces. But considering the risk which is considerable in the combat arms of the military SOMETHING must be driving white males to sign up, particularly for ‘elite’ units or organizations.
— Jim Rockford · Dec 14, 08:16 AM · #