TOS Blog: Daily Commentary from an Objectivist Perspective

The Great Society pushed o the American people by leftists in the sixties was predicted by reasoned people to be the destruction of the American family. This is the legacy of that federal program, paying women to have babies out of wedlock.

What might end gang lifestyle is two parent households who actively enforce rules in their home and care about where their children are and what they are doing. I live in Harlem and sitting in Mcdonalds one evening around 10pm I noticed a group of 5or six black boys who could not have been older than 11 or 12 years old. They were discussing what party they were going to next. I looked at another adult sitting next to me who shrugged his shoulders and said, “Sad isn’t it? Their parents don’t care.”

My grandfather summed up the problem with black culture. At the time I thought it was racist but it was the exact opposite. He told me every black man he had ever met was a fine upstanding person until they got in a group of other black people then they changed.

What is the cause of this? I do not know.I have guesses like if you are told you don’t fit into the world by your parents,teachers and society (see the Doll Test with black children) maybe you feel more comfortable when you at least share the same skin colot?

“extremely high rates of out-of-wedlock births (72.1 percent among blacks in 2010)”

How is this line of argument even relevant? Marriage, as a contract between two people, is a very restrictive concept with far-reaching legal implications. Couples should not be scorned for having children while opting out from an expansive legal burden. Besides, being married or not has absolutely no correlation between how good someone is at parenting, loving/caring for their children or responsibility.

Also, wouldn’t it make more sense to look at the percentage of black *murderers* instead of black victims? I am sure KKK has done its share of killing blacks…

Martin, If you care to read the Wall Street Journal article linked in the piece, you will discover that the large majority of black homicide victims are killed by black perpetrators. Specifically, “black victims were killed by blacks 94% of the time” in the period considered by the article. Regarding out-of-wedlock births, my argument is not that every out-of wedlock birth is problematic. As you indicate, many unmarried couples and single parents are wonderful parents. But do you seriously believe that anywhere close to the 72.1 percent of out-of-wedlock births involve cases of wonderful parenting? Note that this figure has skyrocketed in the last few decades; in 1965 the rate was 24 percent among blacks—see http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/1996/08/childrenfamilies-akerlof. -Ari

“If you care to read the Wall Street Journal article linked in the piece…”

I did not read it, because I do not have the required subscription to the WSJ in order to do so.

“do you seriously believe that anywhere close to the 72.1 percent of out-of-wedlock births involve cases of wonderful parenting?”

I did not say that. I only said that there is no correlation between marriage vs. parenting. Also, statistics can be deceiving.

Actually there is, but it has little to do with bad parenting. One of the issues I’vebeen following is the correlation between single parenthood and gang membership. It is significantly higher than random, and there is at least a highly plausible causal connection: single mothers are often in the worst position to teach their sons how to be men.
As Reagan noted, society is never more than one generation away from collapse, and young men growing up in desperate circumstances need an example of how to properly confront those circumstances. Lacking that, they are much more likely to turn to the barbarism of the modern street gang.
What’s more, huge numbers of single mothers are not the result of domestic abuse (and even among those who are, a startling number of them have admitted that they deliberately provoked their husbands [who were not originally violent men] into it so that they could get better divorce terms. This does not include women who lie about it and get away with it. Widows, of course, do NOT count as single mothers.
Feminism is streaked through with cultural Marxism, and many of these single mothers decide to remain single following the feminist party line, believing what these cultural Marxists tell them. Its not hard to imagine what the son of a feminist single mother is going to grow up with.
Single motherhood is also highly correlated with violent criminals currently serving time, both here and in Britain. Granted, social issues such as this are not good for proving causal connections, but consideration of historical perspectives (such as the mention of different crime rates among these populations in time periods where the rate of single motherhood was lower) are illuminating.

Why don’t you make the point that the prevalent morality of our age is altruism? Altruism pits the strong against the week. People who are disadvantaged have more incentive to take up arms against society because they have the least to lose. The main victim of altruism and statist policies is people’s self-respect.

The more government programs try to “help” people, the more ingrained are the perceived disadvantages. Single women with children can get much more from the government even if their relationship with a man is stable and loving. The government is thus encouraging out-of-wedlock births. Putting all this aside, the main point is that marriage rates, skin color may be clues or symptoms but they are neither principles nor the disease.

Altruism as a morality depends on mysticism as a metaphysics and subjectivism as an epistemology: “I wish it, and therefore, God will provide, or the government will make people provide for me. I’ll prove that I’m not nothing. I’ll get a gun and make them pay attention to me.” As it said in Porgy & Bess, “When you ain’t got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.”

“Granted, social issues such as this are not good for proving causal connections…”

This is exactly what “no corellation” means. Unless there is causality, there is only speculation.

Why do you say genetics obviously have no role in this problem? Blacks have higher crime rates every where in the world and lower iqs, which corrolates with crime. Genetics is the most reasonable explanation.

In the beginning, the KKK were democrats. But the men found the hoods and robes were slowing them down, so they jettisoned them and got elected to office. Now, they’re much more effective in achieving their goals.

Genetics would imply an across-the-board behavior that simply, despite what advocates of racism claim, does not exist. I have known plenty of black people who have not done anything to justify the condemnation that bigots shower upon them.

It all boils down to culture. An example: does perpetrating the Holocaust in 1945 mean Germans are inherently brutal? Of course not. Back then the majority espoused nazism – now they do not. Good ideas foster good morals and thus good culture. Bad ideas (such as racism) do the opposite.

The flaw in your otherwise interesting writing, is that NO ONE is taking up arms for their own betterment. I think that would imply a level of thought that simply does not exist.

The fact is that a child born to a family with a mom and a dad has a much better chance than a child born otherwise.

I would argue there is a direct link between marriage and parenting. And the reasoning is is clear if you take a moment to consider.

“NO ONE is taking up arms for their own betterment.” What is your evidence for this? Do you have a special meaning for “betterment.” Self defense doesn’t count? What is your evidence? I am learning to shoot, so I am one exception that I know, personally.

I don’t know about that. Blacks lead the nation in EVERY area of crime. Including white collar crimes commited by people from “successful” upbringings.

How are they “disadvantaged”? They’re like the most over represented group of people on the planet. There is no better time to BE black in this country than right now.

I think the problem with racism is the double standard we embrace. You can be a very vocal racist, and even commit crimes against those of another race without consequence, unless you’re of European descent. People can’t even define racism properly let alone identify it.

Genetic science has shown conclusively that there are inherited characteristics, but there are no races except the human race. The real problem is multiculturalism growing out of the morality of altruism.

Multiculturalists believe in the absolute equality of all cultures. If a practice or belief is something many people chose and even force others to do, according to multiculturalism, that is fine, as long as most people of the culture accept it. The individual counts for nothing in multiculturalism. In multiculturalism, the head hunter society, the hunter-gather society, the Muslim enslavement of women are considered okay and equal to the society which respects individual rights and objective law.

The truth is that underlying the multiculturalism movement is a hatred of Western Civilization, capitalism, and freedom.

Since most cultures, including our own, are captives of altruism, most people have no objective standard by which to judge behavior.

You should also remember that statistical correlation is not proof. It is evidence of a relationship. To demonstrate proof, one must apply a standard of judgement which is not self-referential to the point at issue. Blacks are treated differently by law in this country (eg. quotas for employment, education). These quotas have a horrible effect on people’s self-respect. There is absolutely no possible evidence that such quotas somehow can translate to genetic differences, but there is a lot of evidence that people who buy into the equality of all cultures excuse all kinds of vile actions in the name of their group having “rights.”

You would be right if tribalism were a value. Blacks are the target, recipients and beneficiaries of the full force of the contradictions of altruism. Wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

Any black in search of understanding individual rights, self-reliance and legitimate self-respect is faced with tribal as well as religious and social collectivism.

Institutionalized whim worshiping is a big impediment to understanding A=A.

Rena got it right. Without all the welfare spending started by the Great Society, this dysfunctional black underclass would never have developed. Therefore, welfare spending has directly caused a high murder rate. People won’t admit this for various reasons, but it is as clear as day.