Politics and Intelligence: Running Against the Cognitive Elite

While Herrnsteinand Murray believed firmly in genetic inequality, which, they argued, both explained and justified social and economic inequality, they also vigorously supported political equality; indeed, they suggested that humans could not be equal “in any other sense.” Citing the beliefs of the founding fathers as support, they asserted that “the best government was one that most efficiently brought the natural aristocracy to high positions.” And they expressed confidence that the “common people” had the good sense to choose what Madison called “men of virtue and wisdom” to govern—that is, those members of the cognitive elite prepared for such a role by their natural ability and their broad education in “history, literature, arts, ethics, and the sciences.” The great majority of citizens—that 95 percent not as intelligent as the cognitive elite—might not possess the right characteristics for the governing class, but, according to The Bell Curve, they could be counted on to recognize those who did.