http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4511 (image, right), one of my favorite commentators, reflects on the intellectual level of the French.
http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4311
The more I observe French society, the more I think about the book by professors http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=2050, published in 2002, and devoted to the study of the average intelligence quotients in 81 countries. France arrives in the 21st position in this world sampling and in 10th place in Western Europe, with an average IQ of 98 (107 in Hong Kong and 102 in Germany). Immigration is not going to improve this situation since the 16 African countries cited in the study are at the bottom of the world classification with IQ’s ranging from 59 to 77.
Note: The book in question is http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=4297.
These data can be confirmed by the level of our teaching. The 2008 ratings by the University of Shanghai have just been released and the results are painful. Out of the 500 top universities in the world, 308 are American, 50 British, and only 9 French. That symbol of republican elitism, the Ecole Normale Supérieur, only placed in the 39th position in the list of 100 top institutions specializing in natural sciences and mathematics. Even though France trains each year as many psychologists and sociologists as the ensemble of the European Union, no French institution figures in the list of the top 100 universities specializing in the social sciences. These results demonstrate the inadequacy of the mini-reforms now in progress. Instead of throwing money away for nothing, it would be wiser to grant scholarships to meritorious students for serious studies in the United Kingdom or the United States.The hoopla surrounding the name of Lévi-Strauss is another indicator of the weakened intellectual level. Open his minor work entitled Race and History considered as the Bible of cultural relativism. In it we find that the East has a thousand-year advance on the West in the knowledge of the human body (he cites in particular the case of yoga). In other words, all the advances of Western science in biology, genetics, or medicine count for peanuts compared with the wondrous practices of the fakirs! And yet in terms of brain-washing, knowledge of Lévi-Strauss is the “open sesame” for anyone who wants to pass the course work in the human sciences.
Finally, if the French people were voting in the American election, they would choose Barack Hussein Obama by a crushing majority. And yet they know nothing about his policies. But it’s enough that he is black to satisfy a morbid penchant for universal repentance. Do not, therefore, be surprised by all the idiocies that you are reading or hearing at this time. They merely reflect the intellectual situation in our unfortunate country.
Note: Yoga has little to do with the fakirs, having been in use for hundreds of years before the Moguls. Appearances to the contrary, Gérard Pince is not making a direct connection between the two.
I am not familiar with the writings of Lévi-Strauss, though I hear a lot of talk about him. I think the problem is, as Pince points out, in over-estimating his theories to the detriment of all others. This type of intellectual dishonesty has always been very common in our universities: a cult builds up around the theories of so-and-so, and is used as a weapon in determining who shall teach, who shall be fired, who shall be admitted or expelled. John Dewey and Karl Marx are two other revered experts whose theories have nearly destroyed the world.
French readers may enjoy the comments. One reader questions the statistics on grounds that the best French schools – the so-called Grandes Ecoles – are not included in the survey, but Gérard Pince disagrees, and questions, in turn, the excellence of the Grandes Ecoles.
Les Grandes Ecoles are advanced schools specializing in one or more branches of technology. We might call them technical schools or engineering and business schools, or specialty schools. Originally they had been created as an alternative to the universities that were regarded as being under the thumb of the Church.
Two years preparation is required (after high-school) for admission to a Grande Ecole.
Finally if you go to the Wikipedia link to the book by http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=1164 you’ll see that the United States and France both have an average IQ of 98, and that we rank 23rd, after several Western European and Asian countries and Japan. The enemies we conquered in 1945 are now smarter than we are with average IQ’s of 102 (Germany) and 105 (Japan).
http://galliawatch.blogspot.com/2008/05/losing-mind.html