Creating the Smart Culture Origins of Hunting Laws
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Hayman, Robert (l998).The smart culture: society, intelligence, and law. 214 I A Neutral Qualifuation: Myths 0/ the Market New York University Press who have not been indoctrinated in the value of the specified words 51 and phrases. This is not merely a claim that specific items on Test 21 may reflect a "white male middle-class bias," although it certainly seems true that some cultural groups, almost by .definition, will be at a disadvantage in defining words like "promontory" or explaining the Creating the Smart Culture origins of hunting laws. The more important claim is that the formal and informal educational experiences of Americans are not uniform; Myths of Inferiority that among the ways they will vary is in the significance they attach to an expanded repertory of words and phrases; and that this variance is likely to occur along racial lines. Let it be said plainly: we, as a nation, teach white kids more words. We always have, and we still do. The official explanationfor America's inequality is supplement. These are just some of the ways Test 21 is not at all neutral. And ed by an unofficial understanding: the elimination of all purposeful they do not even include the many biases that inhere in the very discrimination will not result in social, economic, and political equality. attempt to quantify the intellectual aptitudes of Americans, the bias, The reason: the natural inferiority of some groups and individuals. that is, that inheres in our construction of "smartness." That broader America's hierarchies reflect an enduring natural meritocracy: some people critique is the point of the next two chapters. 1o just are, by nature, better than others. This chapter begins the examination ofAmerica's unofficial understand ing, the mythology of the natural order. It reviews the history of this Will equal opportunity produce equality? mythology: the history ofracial and gender inferiority, the construction of There is no reason to think not. The historical record is perhaps mental deficiency, and the invention ofIQ. It notes that while the myth not very reassuring, but neither is it dispositive. What it discloses of a natural intellectual order has permeated American social above all is that we have never had anything resembling equal life-infecting its arts, its sciences, its religion, and its politics-it has never opportunity. been able to fully suppress the dissenting voice, a voice that rejects Our antidiscrimination laws have not changed this central truth: scientistic hypotheses in favor of experiential truths. That voice, it opportunity still is not equal. Individuals and groups, defined by race, observes, had won the day by the midpoint ofthe twentieth century, when gender, and disability, still enjoy or labor under a pervasive set of the science of the natural order was exposed as a sham and the politics of advantages and disadvantages in playing the social, economic, and hierarchy rejected in favor of a more egalitarian vision. There were, it political games. Moreover, the games themselves harbor their own evolved, no inferior people-just bad science, and worse ideas. biases, their own sets of assumptions and norms that reinforce the disadvantages of cultural outsiders. And it is all very hard to see. It is difficult for someone who accepts the assumptions to see that Prologue they are not natural; difficult for someone who fits the norm to see that it is not inevitable; difficult for someone who shares the truths to We used to have a crippled dog. Alice got him from a dog pound in see that they are not universal. Kansas City when he was a few weeks old. He was a birthday present Sometimes these are comparatively small truths, like the truths of for me. I named him Buddy. I thought that up all by myself. Test 21. But sometimes they are very large truths, like the truth of On my second effort. Truth is, Buddy's name used to be Spike. intelligence. That's what I first called him anyway, though to no great effect. "Come here, Spike," I'd say, "let's go, Spike ... now, Spike," and he Ulo Ul 215 Creating the Smart Culture: Myths of Inferiority 217 216 Creating the Snum Culture: Myths of Inferiority wouldn't do a damned thing. "Aw, c'mon, buddy, please," I would that the ingestion of food was related quite directly to his health, but say in mild exasperation, and at that he would come bounding over, fortunately, it did occur to us-we being less stupid-and so once a day cheerfully scramble into my hands and, after chewing my thumb long we would gather as a family by the food bowl and feed Buddy his dog enough to draw blood, fall asleep. crunchies by hand, amusing him between servings-as his minimal So eventually I skipped the preludes, and he just became Buddy attention span necessitated-with games of catch or tug-of-war. To instead of Spike. Which I reckon makes one of us, either him or me, prevent his starvation, we were forced to continue this practice pretty stupid for not knowing the dog's real name. I vote for the dog, throughout both his adolescence and his adult life. So, long after he for reasons I will now explain. was fully grown, you could find me outside on snowy evenings with The folks at the pound said Buddy was a "Border Collie mix," and our impossibly stupid dog, a hockey stick, a ball, and our impossibly what he was mixed with, we discovered, was an Australian Cattle Dog, stupid dog's food bowl, and I'd shoot him a few, and he'd eat a little, which is in reality just a dingo with, on the whole, slightly better and I'd shoot him a few more, and he'd eat a little more, and so it manners. Unfortunately, the gentility trait appears to be recessive, or would go through five or six rounds, and always our impossibly stupid maybe it skipped Buddy's generation, because our dog, at least as a dog would leave at least one crunchie in his bowl-the lure for one puppy, was indistinguishable from his aboriginal ancestors. For more round. Buddy, every inanimate object was meant to be chewed and every Yes, it eventually occurred to us that Buddy had impossibly stupid moving object was meant to be subdued for chewing ease. He chewed owners. It also eventually occurred to us-indeed, we became our rugs, our furniture, our clothes, our briefcases, and even, I swear, positively convinced of it-that Buddy was in actuality a genius dog. a stack of my students' research assignments (causing me to beg lamely Which he proved, over time, by mastering quite an impressive for their indulgence, as my dog had eaten their homework), OUf feet vocabulary: he learned how to go "upstairs," "downstairs," "outside," were victims in waiting, and so too were our hands and our ears and and to the "basement"; where to go to get the "mail," the "papers," a Alice's hair and my nose. He either did not comprehend or simply "bat h",an d" an'd" e; h ow to " S1t,. 11 11 stay, II 'Ih ee,1" an d 11 Spill;• 11 an d h ow ignored our every command: "no" meant chew and "stop" meant chew to retrieve his "towel" (usually dragged upstairs onto the bed), his and "oucht meant chew really hard. He was the canine equivalent of "rawhide" (usually buried in the backyard), his "treats" (usually stored a delinquent youth, a rebel with furry paws. So when people would under a sofa cushion), and his "mother" (that would be Alice, not inquire about his breed, we would respond earnestly that he was, to usually in any place in particular). Eventually, he even learned the the best of our knowledge, an Australian Cattle Punk, or, after his approximate meaning of "no," which, in his translation, meant "okay, second most notable skill, a Missouri Fan-hound, neither of which, I but only if you do it sheepishly." should ackno-wledge, is a breed currently recognized by the AITlerican So woe knew-, beyond all doubt, that woe ""ere raising a genius dog. ~'as Kennel Club~ ~hich appears to "take sULh things far too seriously, and Proving this to o'Cher people a trickier business, and yet. proving vvould undoubtedly be all in a tizzy over the appropriate breed it mattered to U~ immen~ely ~ame. we were not sDQcifie~tiMt all the Evidently, alone in feeling this way. Some fellow named Stanley Coren wrote a But Buddy was more than just wild or ornery or odoriferous. best-selling book about genius dogs, The Intelligence 0/ Dogs, and we, Buddy was an impossibly stupid dog. This we believed not merely of course, were among the proud parents who bought the book, because Buddy could not or would not heed our commands. Rather, thrilled by the promise of intelligence rankings and canine lQ tests and we based our conclusion largely on his eating habits: specifically, that everything you would apparently need for determining whether your he wouldn't. The only thing in the entire house that escaped his four-legged prodigy was indeed a genius or merely a dolt. But there manic chewing was, in fact, his food, which interested him only to the were, according to the book, different kinds of canine intelligence extent that it was conveniently surrounded by a plastic bowl that was ("instinctive," "adaptive," and "working" intelligence, ifanybody cares), §1 in itself eminently chewable. It apparently did not occur to Buddy and the "Canine IQ" test was an hours-long ordeal that ended up 218 Creatmg the Smart Culture: Myths of Inferiority Creating the Smart Culture: Myths of Inferiority 219 measuring only one measly kind of intelligence, and even then, that already so severe that nonintrusive therapies like drugs and rest were test had to be supplemented by a whole other test for something called of no use.