The Question of Civilization: Is the Success of a Civilization Race-Dependent?
by Dave Cooper
A Commentary on Dr. David Duke’s My Awakening
This is a question upon which our survival depends. It’s the question to which Carleton Putnam’s Race and Reason led David Duke. “I asked myself,” writes David Duke, “What if the things [Carleton Putnam] writes are true? What if the distinctions, quality and composition of races are the primary factors in the vitality of civilizations (My Awakening, 37) …”It alarmed me to think of the implications of race having a cardinal role in the creation and maintenance of culture and civilization. If true, then replacement of the White race through immigration and race-mixing could conceivably destroy Western Civilization itself.” (43)
In a paper David Duke wrote early in his career, he summarized Putnam’s thesis: “It is his belief that a civilization is the product of the particular racial group that created it and that demographic replacement of the founding race, through race-mixing, immigration, and differential birthrates, will diminish and ultimately destroy the vitality of the culture and civilization.” (43)
“Putnam prophesied,” Mr. Duke continues, “that massive racial integration of American public schools would lead to increasing Black racism, resentment and frustration, reduced educational standards, increased violence in the schools, and a resulting implosion of the great cities of America. I worried that such a fate could befall our country. I wanted to find out the truth, no matter where it might lead …” (37) “I came to believe that the intelligence level of a nation’s people is more important than its natural resources.” (50)
The genes are the blueprint of the architecture and chemistry of the brain. It is the genes that determine the structure of the brain and the structure of the brain determines how well we will move about in the world. That much is clear. It’s also clear what effect a catastrophic brain injury may have on a person’s ability to function in the world or what negative effects alcohol may have on a person’s abilty to reason. The point is that structure and chemistry are the primary determinants of brain function and, hence, intelligence. Motivation, training and opportunity can maximize or minimize a person’s accomplishments, but the upper limits of success in a particular area are set at birth by the genes. Individuals vary in their abilities to perform certain tasks and so do groups of related individuals. Because of this, no amount of special training or Head Start* programs will ever turn those without the potential into an Immanuel Kant or J.S. Bach. People such as Bach and Kant are just different. Their brains are better suited for some tasks and that’s just the way it is.
Some types of brain structure support an intelligence that can build a civilization such as ours. Other types do not. As David Duke so aptly phrased it, “Western Civilization runs on a high IQ. It is the high-octane genetically created fuel of our culture and our technology.” He gives an example of why this should matter: “I concluded that if there is a significant difference between Black and White IQs, it will have a profound impact on our society. (57)
Genetics may enable some people to become great athletes or entertainers or to be shrewd at bargaining and splitting hairs. But it is the very special type of intelligence of our own race that has founded Western Civilization. And it is that special type of intelligence that will someday lead us to the stars.
–Dave Cooper
* Ever since the 1960s our schools have been “in crisis,” and this perpetual crisis has loosed a flood of money and a succession of teaching fads. The federal government has spent more than $125 billion in Title I money for poor students since 1965, and Head Start has cost more than $60 billion. –Jared Taylor, The Occidental Quarterly, v. 4 #2
