ABSTRACT
The main thesis of The Bell Curve is an elaboration of an old notion: American society, like Western society in general, is to an increasing extent a meritocracy, run by the most capable and intelligent without regard to their social origin. People of high intelligence, regardless of the social and economic status wherein they were born, are being selected for and concentrated in the upper stratum of society. These "dysgenic pressures" matter especially because the authors believe that intelligence is largely determined by heredity. American society is thus well underway to forming a caste like structure, with an increasingly isolated and outnumbered upper class at the top, and a growing disorderly, vicious, and stupid lower class, ridden by bitter clashes between ethnic groups. It is a most curious fact, though one not much noticed, that The Bell Curve's acceptance of the superiority of East Asians has caused little protest.
