SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 1941
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
PAGE THREE
All Men Are Not Free And Equal but It’s Not Their Fault
--the chances are that her dancing partners will be a little taller than she.
This is the second article in a series by Dr. J.F.Brown, professor of psychology, written especially for the Daily Kansan. Doctor Brown is the author of several books on psychology. His article for next week is "Psychobiological Limits of Freedom."
THE INEVITABILITY of INEQUALITY
Dr. J. F. BROWN
That men are created free and equal is an ideal slogan for these times when we are reaffirming our belief in democracy. For social science, however, it is at the most a moral hope. In a democracy we should try to treat men as if they were free and equal. Actually man's freedom is limited from birth by the nature of his animal body and his social culture. These are barriers to Utopia which will concern us in the next weeks. Today we will see that rather than being created equal, the laws of chance have combined with the facts of variation and heredity to create a race of men who are very unequal indeed.
The chief discoveries of nineteenth and twentieth century biometrics and physiometrics (the measuring of biological and psychological characteristics) show us that nearly all of man's physical, intellectual, and emotional traits vary widely along the bell-shaped curve of normal probability. Think of your girl friends; a few will be beautiful like goddesses, a few will be ugly as sin, but more will be rather pretty or plain and most will be just so-so. And your fellow students: Most will average C's, while about 10 per cent make Phi Beta Kappa and another 10 per cent flunk out. And if the coed unfortunately meets only a relatively few six-footers, she fortunately meets only a similarly small number of men she out-towers, and
Problem In Democracy
For the future the wide spread in intelligence in particular raises problems for a functioning democracy. There is probably more discrepancy between the intelligences of an individual having an IQ. of 140 and one having an IQ. of 60, than there is between the latter and a really gifted chimpanzee. From such discoveries serious barriers arise to a society made up of completely free and cooperating individuals. Certainly for the immediate future we must expect some class or caste stratification in society and accept the necessity for having leaders. One very learned social scientist, V. Pareto, made this fact one of the basic arguments for his thesis that there must exist a naturally conditioned division into elite class and a pariah class in any society.
The first discoveries of the nature and range of individual differences in the nineteenth century did much to discredit the eighteenth century's romantic beliefs in equality. The original differences were attributed to the inevitable laws of heredity. Intelligence was considered purely as an hereditary trait. Furthermore, differences in intelligence between races and social classes found in the intelligence tests lead to the conclusion that these differences were a matter of biological stock. The rich were found smarter than the poor and it was concluded the "poor are poor because they are dumb." Too bad, but its biological nature.
Not Naturally Dumb
Nineteenth century psychology, however, attributed nearly all personality traits to heredity. The new Gestalt psychology or field-theoretical psychology early came to a realization that all traits are co-conditioned by the biological organism and his surrounding environment and that the two together make a unit. Prof. R. H. Wheeler of our University was one of the first American psychologists to embrace this new viewpoint and did yeoman's service in putting it across. And now recent researches in experimental and clinical psychology (most
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notably from the University of Iowa) have shown quite conclusively that improvement of the environment creates a considerable improvement in the intelligence. Psychiatric treatment of some mentally deficient individuals have even brought them above normal. Consequently we shall have to revise our slogan to read, "The poor are at least to some extent dumb because they are poor." If society could furnish optimal environments for everyone we could at least go somewhere toward removing the barrier of the "inevitability of inequality."
K-State to Hold Farm and Home Week Feb. 4-7
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Manhattan, Jan. 25—(UP)—"Mobilizing for Living" will be the theme of homemakers' sessions at the annual Farm and Home Week at Kansas State College here Feb. 4 to 7, according to Miss Margaret
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Shows: 2:30 - 7:00 - 9:00
Continuous Shows from 2:00
Saturday and Sunday
Adults 15c Kids 10c
Today THRU
TUESDAY
A KING OF BUCCANEERS!
AN UNTAMED BEAUTY!
Finding love in the moonlight and music of an enchanted tropical isle!
Mary Boland
H. B. Warner
George Zucco
Grant Mitchell
7 GREAT SIGNWIND
ROMBERG
MELODIES!
A NETRO-GOLDWYM
-MAYER PICTURE
M. Justin, dean of the division of home economics.
Based on the Musical Oreette
"NEW MOON"
Also — Selected Shorts
Social Security Nite
MONDAY NITE, 9:00
$65 CASH FREE
Poultry Day will open the week's program on Tuesday morning, Feb. 4. with Dairy day Wednesday, Feb. 5. The rural electrification program also was scheduled for Feb. 4. On Thursday, Feb. 6. special emphasis will be given to problems involving crops. Livestock day will be Friday.
The farm homemakers' programs will begin Wednesday morning and continue through Friday.
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Jean Arthur at the Jayhawker in "ARIZONA"
Jean Arthur in a scene from Wesley Ruggles' "Arizona." The stirring story of a lone woman building a mighty western empire in a world of reckless men. Now at the Jayhawk for 4 days!