Editorial: The debate is open

Published 09/20/2012

• Lars Hedegaard

”Western countries get dumber by the day” is the title of professor Helmuth Nyborg’s contribution to this edition of Dispatch International. Hardly an encouraging message from the internationally respected and in some circles stigmatized IQ researcher.

The fact that many European countries have experienced mass immigration from areas with an average IQ far below the norm in, e.g., Denmark cannot help but lowering the average IQ in the host countries. According to professor Nyborg, this is already happening and if the trend continues over the coming decades – as seems reasonable to expect – we are bound to reach a point where our population is no longer smart enough to have a democracy let alone a welfare state.

This is to be sure a novel and radically different perspective on immigration, which has been debated far and wide over the past decades.

For IQ researchers there is hardly anything new or sensational in Helmuth Nyborg’s findings or the conclusions he draws from them, but the discussion has been relegated to scientific journals that are never read by the ordinary citizen. The mainstream media have refused to touch the subject.

To Dispatch International there are two possibilities: Either professor Nyborg’s scientific findings are wrong or misleading, but in that case those who claim to know better should come forward and explain where he is mistaken. Or there is nothing wrong with Helmuth Nyborg’s research, and if that is the case, what would be the argument against giving the ordinary citizen access to it?

It may not be nice if reality is as described by Helmuth Nyborg, but reality doesn’t get any better by being concealed. No matter what, we shall have to live with the consequences.

One may also ask if it is particularly nice or charitable towards our descendants to allow a development that will most likely make life impossible for them – and surely deprive them of the chance to live in a democracy or a welfare state like the one we have today.

Have we the right to make this choice on behalf of our children and grandchildren?

The debate is open. Let it be conducted by means of rational argument.