April 28, 2008

Sailerian archaeological find

James Fulford of VDARE.com has dug up the first published paragraph I ever wrote: a letter-to-the-editor that appeared in National Review in 1973 when I was a ninth-grader. It turns out to be exactly the same as everything I've written since. (Perhaps I need a new shtick?)

Here's my new VDARE.com column on the 25th anniversary of the "A Nation at Risk" report on the public schools, which contains this rare find.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your letter supports a blogworld meme that flourished a few months ago of "essential age". Some people, regardless of their age, are essentially always 13, some 40, etc. The young cook at my kids' preschool was an essential 60 year old who loved his garden and was saving for a summer cottage. I am essentially 10, identified by my undying love of fart jokes. You are evidently a snarky 13 year old, and I defer to your greater maturity.

Unknown said...

Steve,

What's a cluster consonant?

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NjdmMmMwNGRjZjcxNThjMzA4MGFiMzE5Y2EwOGUyM2E=

Anonymous said...

Serial, do you trust the people that allowed you to say such things?

Anonymous said...

Btw, I'm designing a really efficient ethanol system. Think it'll work? Ethanol is sexy right?

Anonymous said...

Very precocious. Mr S. My childish published work was on brutal American aggression. Namely grey squirrels versus red.

Anonymous said...

My experience of the hippy torrent of 9th grade was based on the fact I was forced to stay awake several years in a row in an immobile state like I was being tortured. Prolly wasn't affected that badly.


ps I'm making the best sales from people that like the idea of "Flex-Time."

m said...

Steve, You wrote that letter when you were 13?? Man I would have stuffed your head so far down a toilet....

Anonymous said...

Steve -- you mentioned you went to a single sex school that was less bad than the social morass of coed schools.

That in particular your nerdy pursuits were not as socially toxic.

I find it interesting from a sexual selection perspective that women hate hate hate any aspect of nerdy or abstract intelligence. Will select away from those values consistently unless constrained.

If we are looking at the decline of a lot of creativity in many areas, science and technology, the very clear dislike of women for anything in that field other than high-earning, high-powered doctors (shown on daytime soaps and night-time dramas) is part of the mix. Truly we live in an Idiocracy World.

Guys get the message, drop that nerdy statistics for acting lessons and gym memberships.

Anonymous said...

Somewhat OT, Steve have you seen Rev. Wright's speech yesterday at the NAACP in Detroit?

Talking about African and European brains, rhythm, tonality, accent/language, etc. To I might add thunderous applause.

Everyone is buzzing about the vindication of the Bell Curve and Charles Murray.

Oh my. I think we are seeing the contradictions of the PC/Multiculti world tear itself apart. As long as no one spoke openly about it, it was a fiction that could be maintained. But as soon as people, particularly those like Wright, spoke about it, it cannot help but tear itself apart.

Anonymous said...

Here's a grammatical question. In your post you say "on the 25 anniversary" instead of "on the 25th anniversary". I also heard the former N.Y. governer say "on March 5" instead of "March 5th" (or whatever the date was).

Is this some new Americanism?

Anonymous said...

Awfully clever, Steve...wish I were that smart at 13. And getting published in NR! Wow, if I'd gotten published at NR at 13, I would have treasured that moment for the rest of my life. (I was a conservative back then.)

Ever wish ever you'd told the Establishment what they wanted to hear? Seems life would have gone a lot better for you...and I'm saying that as someone who could have gotten a lot further in life if he had been a better suck-up. 20 or 40 years from now, everyone will be saying what you've said all along, the Chinese will be chortling at the downfall of the USA, and nobody will ever cite Sailer. To quote an old Isaac Asimov story, "When they built their statues, there will be none for me."

Anonymous said...

Check the "[March 16, 1973, Pay archive]" link.

Anonymous said...

Hmm. It said you were 13 in 1972,which means today you'd be...uhmmm...much older!

Anonymous said...

SFG, had Steve merely told the Establishment what they wanted to hear he would be no better off and perhaps worse off. The whole point about ideological orthodoxy is that it prevents rise by merit and instead requires family connections.

That is the whole point of liberalism. A Landless Gentry. Using connections and family and so on to create "estates" in various things such as NPR, Labor Unions, politics, news media, etc.

For example, Barbara Ehrenreich's kid is an NPR exec. There certainly would not be enough room for a guy like Steve in the media. Minorities are used as blocking pieces to un-connected guys with merit who might pose competition for the Landless Gentry.

Anonymous said...

Quite precocious, Steve. What I want to know is this: Was it nature or nurture?

testing99: we see many, many comments such as yours in the blogosphere:

"I find it interesting from a sexual selection perspective that women hate hate hate any aspect of nerdy or abstract intelligence. Will select away from those values consistently unless constrained."

I've never seen a soul respond with the obvious, however. What about nerdy women or those who are among the most awkward socially of the sisterhood? Aren't they the ones "meant" to be with nerdy men? I get the feeling from some who proffer this meme, and it's really a feeling I get from all types of men who complain about the lack of women, that their real complaint is that the hottest woman isn't attracted to them. I, ahem, never had this problem as a woman, just noticed it. My husband was watching "Revenge of the Nerds" and if I remember correctly, a nerdy guy has relations with a fellow nerd girl... and then proceeds through the rest of the movie trying to get "The Girl".

Anonymous said...

Guys get the message, drop that nerdy statistics for acting lessons and gym memberships.

Honestly, until I realized I was going to get hampered economically by people thinking I was gay, my attitude was, "Women don't like geeks? Fuck 'em, I've got my hand."

Garland said...

"If we can put a man on the moon, we can certainly [fill in massive liberal social engineering project]."

That has always made me feel that going to the moon must have been basically pretty easy.

Anonymous said...

garland said,

"If we can put a man on the moon, we can certainly [fill in massive liberal social engineering project]."

That has always made me feel that going to the moon must have been basically pretty easy.


Heh. It's an extension of the American "anybody can be anything" myth.

That myth postulates that people are almost utterly malleable. You can be a dentist, US President, master salesman, ballet dancer, or whatever IF YOU SET YOUR MIND TO IT. (Thus any failure is a moral black mark.)

How many times have kids heard this: "You're good in X, therefore you should be good in Y!...If you can concentrate so well on drawing, you can concentrate well on anything, math for instance!"

Thus, "If workers can put a man on the moon, they can do anything...change gold into lead, erase racial differences, eliminate poverty from the world, whip inflation, make diversity programs work in the workplace, fix Iraq, achieve world peace, and sell the hell out of [fill in the blank with crap product]." But nerds tend to be very specialized, and inspiration tends to be individual. Plus, some goals are asinine and (bad word in America) impossible.

Oh well, that's the USA - more blind enthusiasm than brains.