In controversies over "nature versus nurture" as causes of economic and other disparities among peoples and civilizations, nature is often narrowly conceived as genetic differences. Yet geography is also nature-- and its patterns are far more consistent with history than are genetic theories. China, for example, was for many centuries the leading nation in the world-- technologically, organizationally, and in many other ways. Yet, in more recent centuries, China has been overtaken and far surpassed by Europe. Yet neither region of the world has changed genetically to any extent that would account for this dramatic change in their relative positions. This historic turnaround also shows that geographic limitations do not mean geographic determinism, for the geography of the two regions likewise underwent no such changes as could account for the reversal of their respective positions in the world.

The fact that discrimination deserves moral condemnation does not automatically make it causally crucial. Whether it is or is not in a given time and place is an empirical question, not a foregone conclusion. A confusion of morality with causation may be politically convenient but that does not make the two things one.

We rightly condemn a history of gross racial discrimination in American education, for example, but when we make that the causal explanation of educational differences, we go beyond what the facts will support. Everyone is aware of times and places when the amount of money spent educating a black child was a fraction of what was spent educating a white child, when the two groups were educated in separate systems, hermetically sealed off from one another, and when worn-out textbooks from the white schools were then sent over to the black schools to be used, while new and more up-to-date textbooks were bought for the white children. The number of days in a school year sometimes differed so much that a black child with 9 years of schooling would have been in class the same number of days as a white child with only 6 years of schooling. It seems so obvious that such things would account for disparities in test scores, for example. But is it true?

There are other groups to whom none of these factors apply-- and who still have had test score differences as great as those between black and white children in the Jim Crow South. Japanese and Mexican immigrants began arriving in California at about the same time and initially worked in very similar occupations as agricultural laborers. Yet a study of a school district in which their children attended the same schools and sat side-by-side in the same classrooms found IQ differences as great as those between blacks and whites attending schools on opposite sides of town in the Jim Crow South. International studies have found different groups of illiterates-- people with no educational differences because they had no education-- with mental test differences larger than those between blacks and whites in the United States.

What is "the" reason? There may not be any such thing as "the" reason. There are so many cultural, social, economic, and other factors interacting that there was never any reason to expect equal results in the first place. That is why plausible simplicities must be subjected to factual scrutiny.

Monday, December 30, 2002

Back in the USSR...

Pavel Felgenhauer thinks Putin's rapprochement with the West following the events of September 11th have cost him domestically, primarily through loss of support from the military.

The Russian military is visibly disintegrating, with constant mass defections of solders caused by intolerable conditions, while a program of military reform that Putin officially proclaimed to be a national priority is failing to improve the situation. At the same time within the upper ranks there is growing discontent and disappointment with Putin's defense and foreign policies.

Notably, Putin has come a long way from the conflict in Kosovo during 1999, after which the Russian military temporarily froze all relations with NATO. More ominously, military and diplomatic chiefs used this window of anti-Western opportunity to ecstatically reinstate a Soviet-style defense doctrine (signed by Putin in 2000) that framed the West as Russia's main potential enemy. Felgenhauer continues:

After 9/11, Russian generals were alarmed by Putin's sudden westward turn. To silence the opposition, the Kremlin appeased the military. At meetings with generals, Putin and his Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov explained time and again that the closeness with the West was not a full-time policy shift. Russia's participation in the anti-terror coalition was portrayed as a clever temporary tactical move that would benefit Russia, give it access to Western markets of capital and technology, while American solders and bombers would be deployed to destroy the Taliban army of religious extremists. The Kremlin insisted that after 9/11 the West would better understand Russian policies in Chechnya and help cut financial support for the rebels.

The Kremlin can be persuasive when it wants to be, and anyway the careers of top generals depend on the benevolence of the president and the chiefs of his administration. The Russian military accepted the presence of U.S. bases on former Soviet territory, accepted an eastward expansion of NATO to include the three Baltic republics and accepted without much fuss Washington's unilateral withdrawal from the 1972 ABM Treaty and plans to begin building an ABM shield, a system that may one day nullify the Russian strategic nuclear deterrent that is the backbone of all Russian defense plans.

Monday, December 30, 2002

Musica nostra.

It is no longer taboo to speak of "popular culture" or The Nation asked five musicians how the current war against terrorism-- its breadth and depth-- interact with new movements or trends in music to impact the role that music once played in American dissent. Exactly how important is the power of music in effecting social and political change?

Tom Morello describes Axis of Justice, the organization he founded with Serj Tankian of System of a Down, as a "unifying force" in music:

Axis of Justice feels like the most concrete political event that I've been involved in. It's an installation that will go out on band's tours, a tent that brings together representatives from various activist groups to exchange information with concertgoers. Having been in progressively minded bands, I know that it's not easy to help build a bridge between your audience and the causes you support. Axis builds that bridge. It essentially works as a referral service. When we play in your hometown we bring the installation and it's divided by subgroupings, so whether you are personally a victim of physical or sexual abuse, or whether you are interested in labor issues and globalization, or antiracism or peace issues and the war with Iraq, you will be able that night to belong to an organization or meet with others who are interested in forming one.

While I am happy to hear that musicians are mobilizing their voices for political change, it pains me to see this continued focus on labor rights and other social issues at a time when the most tremendous social issue-- the one which affects us all-- is on the platter.

Monday, December 30, 2002

Fancy and free.

"Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything God-like about God, it is that. He dared to imagine everything."
Henry Miller, Sexus

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