The question here, which I won't even mention explicitly is a lit match and gasoline. There was a book, _The Bell Curve_ that came out in 1994 that lit off an inferno.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve

The primary theme of that book was IQ, or "cognitive ability" was the biggest predictor of success and social pathology in modern society, more so than socioeconomic class or others. People with higher IQs do better than those with lower. And people with lower IQs are more likely to commit crimes.

In two chapters, they looked at how cognitive ability correlates with various subsets of the general population, and that set off the inferno.

And they didn't argue it was actually genetic, just that it was there in the data, but their critics said the implication was there even if they didn't say it outright. The Wiki article goes over that.

One big question is indeed is if what is being measured as "cognitive ability" is actually an absolute human quality, or just something that reflects what society's current way of thinking and doing things. That is not a trivial question.

Another theme of the book was modern society was becomming stratified according to this cognitive ability, and they argued that was a very bad thing.

For example, one thing I lament is how the "smart class" just doesn't want to get its hands dirty and doesn't learn little things like, how to change the oil in the car, fix a commode, etc, etc. They don't mix with the broader population and get very isolated from the "real world".

Anyway, the above subject is indeed explosive, and it's just not something anyone wants to touch. It can be misused, as well as getting innocent people destroyed for even looking at it.

-Richard