So what is important about this change from a socially stratified society to an intellectually stratified society? It is rather simple. There are no longer any spokesmen for the dumb as that is the strata we are no talking about. That sounds callous but it is the natural result of a society that is classless in the traditional sense.
In the traditional classes there were brilliant members of each class who could speak for its conditions. There were Martin Luther Kings who could struggle out of it and make an intelligent case to the intelligent of the upper class and succeed. Today, the only people who can speak for the lower class are those who remember their childhood and want to speak for it. They left it on their way to college and never turned back.
We have nothing left but the bright speaking for what they imagine of the not so bright and the not so bright unable to speak for themselves. That is the new reality. This is the point of the rapidly increasing estrangement of race and ethnic from "their own." "Their own" has become their intellectual peers and nothing else.
We have become a colorless society that is still trying to apply solutions based upon color. Consider that the majority of legal hispanics voted for California's Proposition 187 that works against illegal hispanics. Where is the "class" loyalty any longer?
And the political rhetoric that calls such things as 187 racist and bigoted falls on the deaf ears of those who are of the same class and group who are in favor of it. Calling everything race and emotion is a remembrance of the old solutions that caused today's problems.
Consider what was done was in a good cause. The intelligent have always been saying that social engineering without knowing the consequences is dangerous. The social engineering of the 1960s not only failed to end poverty as it was intended but it also created another problem, for better or for worse, a new form of society.
And this form of society has completely separated the do-ers of society from the followers of society. Not only are they separated by intelligence as always, they are separated by the education, life experience, place of living, employment, social circles, everything but geneology.
The schism is almost as great for intelligent blacks as was moving their ancestors out of Africa and separating them from their culture. And in this case they are happy to leave their lower class culture. And no slavers required, only guaranteed college loans.
Now let us face the fact that we have, as a society dredged as deep as possible into what was once the lower class, more than 250 SAT points in many cases by name universities, and realize that we have succeeded. Where do we go from here.
We can quantify the results of this "dredging" and measure where the point of no additional benefit is. We can quantify the point of "no additional benefit" and save the additional costs and expend them on better educating those who are above the cut.
Similarly we can safely assume those left behind are not going to get any further than where they were left. Education will not help them as they can not absorb anything of interest. Head Start will not help them as there are no measurable benefits after the 6th grade. And if not education then what is there to benefit them?
They can not be trained for better jobs. At best they can only be trained to unskilled labor much as the mentally retarded which they so resemble save in name only.
Given the trend of society, that of the intelligent developing tools to further their own talents and abilities for their own benefit what do we do with people who are essentially worthless to society? What can we do for them save purely humanitarian and charitable actions.
Certainly they should not starve in the streets. Certainly they should not be in the streets in the first place. But we certainly should give up the notion that they are redeemable by redoubling our efforts. The only thing they can produce is the less and less common child that regresses upwards toward the norm of 100 IQ.
So we now have a new class completely definable by their IQ that is essentially of no value to society. Further this class can not survive on its own in our society.
And this is not just to identify those below 100. The norm of success and meaningful contribution to our society is moving well above 100 now that there is no contribution from those below 100.
We have several options. We can put them on welfare forever and simply give them enough for the essentials of life. Even if we resurrect ditch digging and a servant class for gainful employment they will never have any more than that so what is the difference? Work may be good for the soul but non-productive labor isn't worth the effort.
We could cut them off from the social teat completely and rely upon the human survival instinct. The clear political argument that five trillion dollars has been spent to no decrease in poverty. Rather it appears that we have, so to speak, culled the best of the poor and left the worst in worse shape to a neutral cost. However, the simple end of discrimination and offering the best education would have accomplished the same thing to the same end at a small fraction of the cost.
Of interest is that every solution we have, short of reinstituting segregation will only accelerate the culling process. The best will rise to the top faster, even if only from making conditions worse so they will leave faster and with greater motivation.
Now that we are all interested in addressing the problem of a new for of society, by we consider who is reading this and remember it is not those left behind at the intellectual bottom of the scale, what are we going to do? Are we going to continue with the methods that caused this massive change? Or are we going to adapt our methods to the results of this change?