"Why? Low average IQ is obviously part of the explanation. But it’s not the whole story. The persistence of superstitious beliefs, notably in witchcraft, has been largely ignored by mainstream economists—due to political correctness."
But superstition is just another manifestation of low IQ
“Addressing this requires more than tinkering with the education system. It demands a fundamental cultural shift, which must be led by cognitive elites.”
There lies the rub—“cognitive elites”. Where are they? I’m not convinced you’ve made a case for “magical thinking” as being separate from IQ. Rather I simply see such as being so highly correlated to that there is no reason to draw distinction. Child-like minds pervade Africa, This will never change until Africans change mentally and that will not happen in any timeframe I can imagine.
A recent guest post via Tove K's Substack by a Nigerian psychologist shows how religion and low IQ work out in daily life, politics, economics etc.
Guest post: The Global IQ Debate: A Modest Contribution From A Resident African
What is it like to live in a society with an estimated median IQ around 70? A Nigerian psychologist explains.
Tove K and Charlatan
Intro:
I'm a Nigerian who lives in Nigeria and has no intention of leaving now or in the future. As popular as the discourse of national IQs is in the West or among academics, I'm yet to come across a single African commentator or public intellectual engaging with this discourse. I think it further confirms the claim of low IQ when a people are not even self-aware enough to grapple with this question.
The overwhelmingly predominant attitude among the educated elite in Africa is that Africa's problem has nothing to do with cognitive disadvantage and more to do with Western oppression or bad leadership or colonialism or... whatever other external agent they can think of. One of the consequences of low IQ is the inability to organize at scale and mobilize collective actions while setting a far reaching national goals that transcend tribal sentiments.
I watch with pity as we continue to hope for some kind of cultural/political revolution and wonder how this is expected to happen when even the most elite among our people are incredibly self-serving and cowardly in the face of moral moral, spiritual, and political corruption.
Haiti won its independence before the end of the Atlantic slave trade, so it was still getting a fresh supply of voodoo practitioners from West Africa up through when its founding locked in place its culture. Hence, Haiti has a lot more self-destructive of a culture than other Caribbean countries that more thoroughly Christianized over the course of the 19th Century.
I believe Christianity is also growing in Africa. It would be interesting to know whether Christianity is displacing belief in witchcraft as it spreads. If so, it could point to a brighter future.
I appreciate that Substack is a free speech platform, but this article is just ignorant. The USA's Puritan founders believed in and feared witchcraft, and the Founding Fathers were Freemasons. Look at the all-seeing eye on your dollar bill. Some Americans even believed that Biden was competent.
Okay, this was funny to read (I liked it), but it needs a touch of nuance. Witchcraft exists; it’s real. However, what it actually is and what Christendom manufactured it to be over the centuries—as it migrated and expanded across Europe—is an entirely different matter.
That said, this isn’t particularly about “witchcraft” as much as it is about cultural hysteria and deeply embedded superstition held by flat-out societal ignorance. Religious minds overwhelmingly have low IQ. And the African continent is still riddled with draconian mentalities.
The inverse religion/IQ correlation isn't universal- doesn't seem to apply in South Korea, if I recall correctly- and in the west is likely downstream of universities being secular leftoid madrassas.
That's not a particular defence of religion- I happen to think the New Atheists have a point now and then- but I think the moron fundie stereotype gets a little overplayed.
I wouldn’t claim to know all the studies, but I’ve certainly researched plenty over the years with data implicating that religious minds are less sophisticated by significant margins (i.e., unrelated to conventional educational institutions/learning, rather in relation to progressive cognitive development/EQ).
I certainly believe culture plays a pertinent role on how supernatural belief systems influence society and the geopolitical arenas. You gave a great example with South Korea against varying African nations. I don’t think it’s overplayed as much as misunderstood or inaccurately thrown about. We see a clear demonstration of an entire continent being restrained by fictitious nonsense.
Yes, a lot of Christians in South Korea. But if they really believed in Christianity you'd think they'd have actual families with children once in a while. It's hardly an unusual thing for people to see their church as mainly (or possibly entirely) a social club.
" But if they really believed in Christianity you'd think they'd have actual families with children once in a while. It's hardly an unusual thing for people to see their church as mainly (or possibly entirely) a social club."
Exactly. There are not many Evangelicals in South Korea. More like Unitarians.
You know that church attendance is correlated highly with education right? The people who attend the least are the lowest IQ check Ryan Burges Substack
This essay reminded me of a crazy thing I think of: If you were an alien, and came down to earth, imagine the juxtoposition of naked humans running through the jungle with sharpened sticks, virtually unchanged over the past 20K years and then a city like Singapore or New York and other humans orbiting the planet with the latest cutting edge technology. We'll likely have a colony on Mars long long before the jungle tribes advance.
And we also have witchcraft behind some of this behavior... which is INSANE to think about.
Lmao this feels like a throwback to a New Atheist article or something haha. Africa is literally the only place in the world that has a replacement birth rate so if anything we can learn from them not the other way around since your Western elites are literally killing their societies and replacing them with these very same Africans haha
Are you suggesting we should fix low birthrates by accusing the wealthy of sorcery and poisoning unwanted children? I'd be curious as to the causal mechanism.
No I didn’t say that. All I’m saying is to act like you are superior to them in your ivory tower when your culture thinks boys can become girls, thinks baby murder is ok, and that there’s no such thing as border for a country is silly. Sure pagan fertility idols and sorcery are dumb but they are no dumber than atheistic liberalism that Aporia promotes and the fact Africa actually isn’t killing itself like the West is shows it has some vitality to it
There are several writers for Aporia, and I remember Matt doing a piece that was broadly friendly to religious experience at some point, though I think he's moved on from writing there? I dunno, I see the crew as ambivalent on the topic rather than hostile.
Yeah, obviously western TFR as a whole needs to come up, aside from avoiding dysgenics, but quantity over quality means the extinction of civilisation (which would, in the long run, impose its own quality control. Just not very pleasantly.)
Well it won’t come up unless the culture changes which it won’t unless it becomes Catholic again which would require the “quality” people to act much differently and not solely be technocratic
I'm fairly sure Catholicism isn't the only religion capable of promoting higher fertility (the Amish, Hasidim and Taliban suggest otherwise, although curiously enough Iran's TFR is only 1.7 despite being a literal islamic theocracy. I think Mongolia got a boost recently as well.)
Here’s the logic: If total population = tp, current population = cp, birth rate = b, and death rate = d then (assuming no immigration from the “low quality” countries you are talking about) you can calculate the total population over time by creating the function tp(t) = cp + b(t) - d(t). Using that function you can calculate the rate at which the population is growing or dying by saying tp’(t) = b’(t) - d’(t). Notice that death rate can never be zero as humans are mortal so while you might be able to slow it with modern technology it will always be non zero. Meanwhile the birth rate is approaching close to 0.6 in some countries heading towards basically zero. This means that the rate of change of the population is very negative with a non zero death rate and a birth rate approaching 0. When you have a population rate (tp’) that negative the population itself (tp) will be heading towards 0 which is extinction. Hope that helps
Have you looked at the stats and the culture? The “high quality” people in the West murder 1/3 of their babies and don’t have 2.3 babies per woman and haven’t for 50 years. Yes in principle “high quality” people can have more than that in numbers of children but they would have to stop abandoning true religion and stop being liberals which you would probably consider the bars for “high quality”
Quality cannot exist without at least some quantity.
My main concern is that Western IQ averages will decline due to smart females postponing or avoiding procreation in the interests of their careers and the need for two breadwinners to afford a decent house.
"Quality cannot exist without at least some quantity."
I'm not sure what you mean. Your comment suggests that quality can only exist if there is a sufficient quantity of lower quality. Presently, the world's population produces individuals with high intelligence by having millions of children, and, on average, some will be intelligent, with a little effort to choose a mate with high cognitive ability.
"My main concern is that Western IQ averages will decline due to smart females postponing or avoiding procreation in the interests of their careers and the need for two breadwinners to afford a decent house."
I agree. One way to improve quality traits is to choose a mate with desirable qualities, of course. But I am a firm believer in embryo selection and genetic enhancement. Currently, neither of these is very well developed. But progress is being made quickly.
Well written and detailed article on what is essentially “magical thinking” and it’s deleterious psychological,social, economic and other effects, but limited by unconscious western cultural bias.
As an example , hold the same thought and apply it to current western magical thinking about the feminist/gay/trans ideology and how promoting this will “magically” bring great benefits to us all. If you do this you will see our “advanced western conceptual” abilities are also underpinned by magical thinking.
In addition, as has been pointed out by Gould and others “IQ tests” don’t truly measure intelligence, just a limited set of mental skills valued by western cultures.
Also as someone else pointed out, at least these people can reproduce (which normal people instinctively feel possesses a genuine “magic” - both the sex act and the birth of a child) . The “conceptually advanced” western folks are so far into their heads (to the detriment of other human faculties such as feeling and instinct) they either can’t, or don’t want to reproduce. They can’t even figure out what a man or a woman is for fucks sake, africans being far more normal and balanced , just get on with the fucking.
"In addition, as has been pointed out by Gould and others “IQ tests” don’t truly measure intelligence, just a limited set of mental skills valued by western cultures."
Gould is a poor reference. He has (had) many notable detractors.
Envy and belief in witchcraft are closely related, with witchcraft used by the envious to explain the success of others, as Helmut Schoeck realized.
Modern envy is based on the superstition of 'privilege' instead.
Add scapegoating too.
"Why? Low average IQ is obviously part of the explanation. But it’s not the whole story. The persistence of superstitious beliefs, notably in witchcraft, has been largely ignored by mainstream economists—due to political correctness."
But superstition is just another manifestation of low IQ
“Addressing this requires more than tinkering with the education system. It demands a fundamental cultural shift, which must be led by cognitive elites.”
There lies the rub—“cognitive elites”. Where are they? I’m not convinced you’ve made a case for “magical thinking” as being separate from IQ. Rather I simply see such as being so highly correlated to that there is no reason to draw distinction. Child-like minds pervade Africa, This will never change until Africans change mentally and that will not happen in any timeframe I can imagine.
A recent guest post via Tove K's Substack by a Nigerian psychologist shows how religion and low IQ work out in daily life, politics, economics etc.
Guest post: The Global IQ Debate: A Modest Contribution From A Resident African
What is it like to live in a society with an estimated median IQ around 70? A Nigerian psychologist explains.
Tove K and Charlatan
Intro:
I'm a Nigerian who lives in Nigeria and has no intention of leaving now or in the future. As popular as the discourse of national IQs is in the West or among academics, I'm yet to come across a single African commentator or public intellectual engaging with this discourse. I think it further confirms the claim of low IQ when a people are not even self-aware enough to grapple with this question.
The overwhelmingly predominant attitude among the educated elite in Africa is that Africa's problem has nothing to do with cognitive disadvantage and more to do with Western oppression or bad leadership or colonialism or... whatever other external agent they can think of. One of the consequences of low IQ is the inability to organize at scale and mobilize collective actions while setting a far reaching national goals that transcend tribal sentiments.
I watch with pity as we continue to hope for some kind of cultural/political revolution and wonder how this is expected to happen when even the most elite among our people are incredibly self-serving and cowardly in the face of moral moral, spiritual, and political corruption.
https://woodfromeden.substack.com/p/guest-post-the-global-iq-debate-a?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=831683&post_id=156588016&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=6mos7&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
You almost had a based title: "How witchcraft holds Africa back"
Courageous article.
Africa wins, always.
Haiti won its independence before the end of the Atlantic slave trade, so it was still getting a fresh supply of voodoo practitioners from West Africa up through when its founding locked in place its culture. Hence, Haiti has a lot more self-destructive of a culture than other Caribbean countries that more thoroughly Christianized over the course of the 19th Century.
I believe Christianity is also growing in Africa. It would be interesting to know whether Christianity is displacing belief in witchcraft as it spreads. If so, it could point to a brighter future.
I appreciate that Substack is a free speech platform, but this article is just ignorant. The USA's Puritan founders believed in and feared witchcraft, and the Founding Fathers were Freemasons. Look at the all-seeing eye on your dollar bill. Some Americans even believed that Biden was competent.
Okay, this was funny to read (I liked it), but it needs a touch of nuance. Witchcraft exists; it’s real. However, what it actually is and what Christendom manufactured it to be over the centuries—as it migrated and expanded across Europe—is an entirely different matter.
That said, this isn’t particularly about “witchcraft” as much as it is about cultural hysteria and deeply embedded superstition held by flat-out societal ignorance. Religious minds overwhelmingly have low IQ. And the African continent is still riddled with draconian mentalities.
The inverse religion/IQ correlation isn't universal- doesn't seem to apply in South Korea, if I recall correctly- and in the west is likely downstream of universities being secular leftoid madrassas.
That's not a particular defence of religion- I happen to think the New Atheists have a point now and then- but I think the moron fundie stereotype gets a little overplayed.
I wouldn’t claim to know all the studies, but I’ve certainly researched plenty over the years with data implicating that religious minds are less sophisticated by significant margins (i.e., unrelated to conventional educational institutions/learning, rather in relation to progressive cognitive development/EQ).
I certainly believe culture plays a pertinent role on how supernatural belief systems influence society and the geopolitical arenas. You gave a great example with South Korea against varying African nations. I don’t think it’s overplayed as much as misunderstood or inaccurately thrown about. We see a clear demonstration of an entire continent being restrained by fictitious nonsense.
Yes, a lot of Christians in South Korea. But if they really believed in Christianity you'd think they'd have actual families with children once in a while. It's hardly an unusual thing for people to see their church as mainly (or possibly entirely) a social club.
" But if they really believed in Christianity you'd think they'd have actual families with children once in a while. It's hardly an unusual thing for people to see their church as mainly (or possibly entirely) a social club."
Exactly. There are not many Evangelicals in South Korea. More like Unitarians.
You know that church attendance is correlated highly with education right? The people who attend the least are the lowest IQ check Ryan Burges Substack
"You know that church attendance is correlated highly with education right?"
'Education' in what? The high IQs are found in STEM subjects, and a preponderance are atheists or agnostic at best.
This essay reminded me of a crazy thing I think of: If you were an alien, and came down to earth, imagine the juxtoposition of naked humans running through the jungle with sharpened sticks, virtually unchanged over the past 20K years and then a city like Singapore or New York and other humans orbiting the planet with the latest cutting edge technology. We'll likely have a colony on Mars long long before the jungle tribes advance.
And we also have witchcraft behind some of this behavior... which is INSANE to think about.
I doubt that belief in witchcraft and low IQ are independent variables.
Lmao this feels like a throwback to a New Atheist article or something haha. Africa is literally the only place in the world that has a replacement birth rate so if anything we can learn from them not the other way around since your Western elites are literally killing their societies and replacing them with these very same Africans haha
Are you suggesting we should fix low birthrates by accusing the wealthy of sorcery and poisoning unwanted children? I'd be curious as to the causal mechanism.
Maybe if we erect huge wooden storks the fertility spirits will give us more children
No I didn’t say that. All I’m saying is to act like you are superior to them in your ivory tower when your culture thinks boys can become girls, thinks baby murder is ok, and that there’s no such thing as border for a country is silly. Sure pagan fertility idols and sorcery are dumb but they are no dumber than atheistic liberalism that Aporia promotes and the fact Africa actually isn’t killing itself like the West is shows it has some vitality to it
I'm not sure Aporia is a particular strident advocate for 'atheistic liberalism', and in any case the article isn't calling to ban religion per se.
He recently reviewed Ross Douthats book and dismissed religion as something no educated person could believe
There are several writers for Aporia, and I remember Matt doing a piece that was broadly friendly to religious experience at some point, though I think he's moved on from writing there? I dunno, I see the crew as ambivalent on the topic rather than hostile.
I don’t totally keep up but they gatekeep and are against the social kingship of Christ whenever it comes up
"Africa is literally the only place in the world that has a replacement birth rate so if anything we can learn from them not the other way around..."
The laugh is on you. In demographics, there is one thing that is important: Quality over quantity.
Quality over quantity means human extinction in the long term
Yeah, obviously western TFR as a whole needs to come up, aside from avoiding dysgenics, but quantity over quality means the extinction of civilisation (which would, in the long run, impose its own quality control. Just not very pleasantly.)
Well it won’t come up unless the culture changes which it won’t unless it becomes Catholic again which would require the “quality” people to act much differently and not solely be technocratic
I'm fairly sure Catholicism isn't the only religion capable of promoting higher fertility (the Amish, Hasidim and Taliban suggest otherwise, although curiously enough Iran's TFR is only 1.7 despite being a literal islamic theocracy. I think Mongolia got a boost recently as well.)
"Quality over quantity means human extinction in the long term."
There is no logic in that statement.
Here’s the logic: If total population = tp, current population = cp, birth rate = b, and death rate = d then (assuming no immigration from the “low quality” countries you are talking about) you can calculate the total population over time by creating the function tp(t) = cp + b(t) - d(t). Using that function you can calculate the rate at which the population is growing or dying by saying tp’(t) = b’(t) - d’(t). Notice that death rate can never be zero as humans are mortal so while you might be able to slow it with modern technology it will always be non zero. Meanwhile the birth rate is approaching close to 0.6 in some countries heading towards basically zero. This means that the rate of change of the population is very negative with a non zero death rate and a birth rate approaching 0. When you have a population rate (tp’) that negative the population itself (tp) will be heading towards 0 which is extinction. Hope that helps
"Hope that helps"
You make illogical assumptions, such as. The birth rate of high-quality individuals will be below the replacement level.
The questions are: What is the point of the continuance of a low-quality population? How does it provide for the ascension of humanity?
Have you looked at the stats and the culture? The “high quality” people in the West murder 1/3 of their babies and don’t have 2.3 babies per woman and haven’t for 50 years. Yes in principle “high quality” people can have more than that in numbers of children but they would have to stop abandoning true religion and stop being liberals which you would probably consider the bars for “high quality”
Quality cannot exist without at least some quantity.
My main concern is that Western IQ averages will decline due to smart females postponing or avoiding procreation in the interests of their careers and the need for two breadwinners to afford a decent house.
"Quality cannot exist without at least some quantity."
I'm not sure what you mean. Your comment suggests that quality can only exist if there is a sufficient quantity of lower quality. Presently, the world's population produces individuals with high intelligence by having millions of children, and, on average, some will be intelligent, with a little effort to choose a mate with high cognitive ability.
"My main concern is that Western IQ averages will decline due to smart females postponing or avoiding procreation in the interests of their careers and the need for two breadwinners to afford a decent house."
I agree. One way to improve quality traits is to choose a mate with desirable qualities, of course. But I am a firm believer in embryo selection and genetic enhancement. Currently, neither of these is very well developed. But progress is being made quickly.
Quantity has a quality all it’s own. J Stalin.
Well written and detailed article on what is essentially “magical thinking” and it’s deleterious psychological,social, economic and other effects, but limited by unconscious western cultural bias.
As an example , hold the same thought and apply it to current western magical thinking about the feminist/gay/trans ideology and how promoting this will “magically” bring great benefits to us all. If you do this you will see our “advanced western conceptual” abilities are also underpinned by magical thinking.
In addition, as has been pointed out by Gould and others “IQ tests” don’t truly measure intelligence, just a limited set of mental skills valued by western cultures.
Also as someone else pointed out, at least these people can reproduce (which normal people instinctively feel possesses a genuine “magic” - both the sex act and the birth of a child) . The “conceptually advanced” western folks are so far into their heads (to the detriment of other human faculties such as feeling and instinct) they either can’t, or don’t want to reproduce. They can’t even figure out what a man or a woman is for fucks sake, africans being far more normal and balanced , just get on with the fucking.
"In addition, as has been pointed out by Gould and others “IQ tests” don’t truly measure intelligence, just a limited set of mental skills valued by western cultures."
Gould is a poor reference. He has (had) many notable detractors.
I’m sure it’s the witchcraft keeping Africa from colonizing the stars 🙄. Stop feeding them, obviously.