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This is a duplicate from the "mind and brain sciences forum", if the moderators are to delete one of the posts, please delete the one in the latter.
Have any of you read Goddard's written work, I think it's called "Who is the moron?" He describes the moron as particularly dangerous, because apparently, they have inadequate IQs, however unlike the lower IQ "imbecile" and "idiot", the moron still possesses the need to procreate, and by doing so devastates the state of mankind with offspring that suffer the same state, to grow up to become monster Frankensteins.
To what extent do you all feel that his work has influenced the American culture? While many may not be familiar with his work, I think that this stigma is still a big aspect of today's society, the concept has been passed on so to speak.
That is, while the American culture seems to have distanced itself somewhat from that of religious stigmas, the IQ stigma still remains, perhaps even more strongly than before, to that of a "hell and heaven" effect. Nobody wants to be a "freak","idiot","imbecile" etc...and the media seems to be very attentative to this aspect of things. That is, to alleviate the matter, as well as enforce it in many instances. So despite the fact that his work is regarded as pseudoscience, people still seem to embrace these concepts, and perhaps for the better, perhaps this is why the American attitude of things is superior, because we have adopted his criteria in the form of a strong selection process.
The idea here is that those of us that don't have the intelligence and talents to be productive are doomed to do something incredibly stupid and detrimental, to digress to a criminal state. So it seems that people have a lot of motivation to at least appear busy and preoccupied, to avoid this stigma; and to indicate sufficient IQs which increases their chances of finding a mate. However, even the latter is a bit redundant in the sense that we are all expected to settle down by a certain age, and only the moron has trouble finding a higher intellectual calling. That is the motivation for "not being a moron", finding a mate, is often insufficient, to escape the disgusting moronic state, he/she must devote themselves completely to intellect. It has a strong religious connotation to it, but society seems to have adopted. It's a religious ideal, except in a more constructive form.
another issue I wanted to present was whether such a stigma would contribute to an increased prevalence in mental illness or would rather decrease the occurence, since perhaps, people have something that they can aspire to. A popular notion is that mental illness is a selfish trait.
Have any of you read Goddard's written work, I think it's called "Who is the moron?" He describes the moron as particularly dangerous, because apparently, they have inadequate IQs, however unlike the lower IQ "imbecile" and "idiot", the moron still possesses the need to procreate, and by doing so devastates the state of mankind with offspring that suffer the same state, to grow up to become monster Frankensteins.
To what extent do you all feel that his work has influenced the American culture? While many may not be familiar with his work, I think that this stigma is still a big aspect of today's society, the concept has been passed on so to speak.
That is, while the American culture seems to have distanced itself somewhat from that of religious stigmas, the IQ stigma still remains, perhaps even more strongly than before, to that of a "hell and heaven" effect. Nobody wants to be a "freak","idiot","imbecile" etc...and the media seems to be very attentative to this aspect of things. That is, to alleviate the matter, as well as enforce it in many instances. So despite the fact that his work is regarded as pseudoscience, people still seem to embrace these concepts, and perhaps for the better, perhaps this is why the American attitude of things is superior, because we have adopted his criteria in the form of a strong selection process.
The idea here is that those of us that don't have the intelligence and talents to be productive are doomed to do something incredibly stupid and detrimental, to digress to a criminal state. So it seems that people have a lot of motivation to at least appear busy and preoccupied, to avoid this stigma; and to indicate sufficient IQs which increases their chances of finding a mate. However, even the latter is a bit redundant in the sense that we are all expected to settle down by a certain age, and only the moron has trouble finding a higher intellectual calling. That is the motivation for "not being a moron", finding a mate, is often insufficient, to escape the disgusting moronic state, he/she must devote themselves completely to intellect. It has a strong religious connotation to it, but society seems to have adopted. It's a religious ideal, except in a more constructive form.
another issue I wanted to present was whether such a stigma would contribute to an increased prevalence in mental illness or would rather decrease the occurence, since perhaps, people have something that they can aspire to. A popular notion is that mental illness is a selfish trait.
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