tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post3614273285767921575..comments2024-03-29T05:14:33.223-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: All Things 1962Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-85538001779121289072011-06-11T10:44:07.237-07:002011-06-11T10:44:07.237-07:00Steve Landsburg has a post on whether anyone would...Steve Landsburg has a <a href="http://www.thebigquestions.com/2011/06/09/blind-spots/" rel="nofollow">post</a> on whether anyone would realize how big a deal the Beatles and their genre would be in 1963, in contrast to his focus on mathematics where revolutions are immediately obvious to those paying attention.TGGPhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11017651009634767649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-15443270866589216782011-06-10T17:40:46.955-07:002011-06-10T17:40:46.955-07:00Ask a person - anyone - to name the 3 or 4 year pe...<i>Ask a person - anyone - to name the 3 or 4 year period when popular music was at its zenith. Almost invariably, you will be able to tell that person his or her approximate age simply by assuming that those were your interviewee's high school years.</i><br /><br />Not me. I was in HS from 1971-1974, which is probably close to the nadir of popular music. <br /><br />If I could pick any three-year period, I'd probably go for 1938-1941. If forced to choose from the RnR era, I'd probably say 1964-1966 ... and you can leave out the Beatles. They had some good songs, but they've become too sanctified. I'm especially mystified by the large number of young people - that is people who were born 10 or more years after the Beatles broke up - who seem to love the moptops from Liverpool.Get Off My Lawn!noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-69985843377285683062011-06-10T11:29:47.599-07:002011-06-10T11:29:47.599-07:00"The most "cognitively elite" count...<i>"The most "cognitively elite" country in the world, by far, is China"<br /><br />......most cognitively elite? The phrase doesn't make sense. You don't know what the cognitive elite is.</i><br /><br />Yes I do. It's a prop used by high IQ groups in their attempts to justify why my home should be theirs.Svigorhttp://majorityrights.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-23187575211328149862011-06-10T08:22:46.467-07:002011-06-10T08:22:46.467-07:00"I should mimic a posh accent like someone el..."I should mimic a posh accent like someone else around here frequently does"<br /><br />You can hear it?Truthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17286755693955361308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-45818742522845577432011-06-10T07:53:06.665-07:002011-06-10T07:53:06.665-07:00One other thing about the 1939/1962 dichotomy: In ...One other thing about the 1939/1962 dichotomy: In 1939, you've got the 32 y.o. John Wayne starring in <i>Stage Coach</i>, and the 31 y.o. Jimmy Stewart starring in <i>Mr Smith</i>; then you fast forward 23 years, to 1962 - Wayne is now 55 y.o., Stewart is 54 y.o. - and you've got them starring together in <i>Liberty Valance</i> and <i>How the West Was Won</i>.<br /><br />Sigh.<br /><br />They just don't make 'em like that anymore.<br /><br />They. Just. Don't.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-1952403578885348542011-06-10T07:40:12.894-07:002011-06-10T07:40:12.894-07:00And there are lots of other very famous movies in ...<i>And there are lots of other very famous movies in The Top 50.</i> <br /><br />Sorry - here is <a href="http://www.imdb.com/search/title?year=1962,1962&title_type=feature&sort=moviemeter,asc" rel="nofollow">the correct link</a> to The 1962 Top 50.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-39435426466949185092011-06-10T07:18:07.123-07:002011-06-10T07:18:07.123-07:00"I read that the music you are most exposed t..."I read that the music you are most exposed to between the ages of 14 and 18 is the music that will always affect you most. . ."<br /><br />Demonstrably true. Ask a person - anyone - to name the 3 or 4 year period when popular music was at its zenith. Almost invariably, you will be able to tell that person his or her approximate age simply by assuming that those were your interviewee's high school years.Jim Ohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01912710881278409532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-33202122104714768952011-06-09T22:25:24.192-07:002011-06-09T22:25:24.192-07:00Uhh, as regards 1962, how about the movies themse...Uhh, as regards 1962, how about the movies themselves?<br /><br />Here is <a href="http://www.imdb.com/year/1962/" rel="nofollow">the IMDB Top 10 for 1962</a>:<br /><br /><br />1. The Longest Day (1962)<br /><br />2. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)<br /><br />3. Lolita (1962)<br /><br />4. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)<br /><br />5. Dr. No (1962)<br /><br />6. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)<br /><br />7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)<br /><br />8. How the West Was Won (1962)<br /><br />9. What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)<br /><br />10. The Exterminating Angel (1962)<br /><br /><br />And there are lots of other very famous movies in <a href="" rel="nofollow">The Top 50</a>.<br /><br />Personally speaking, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056217/" rel="nofollow"><i>Liberty Valance</i></a> is probably my all-time favorite movie, and I'd argue that 1962 was the high-water mark of American cinema [rivalled only by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/search/title?year=1939,1939&title_type=feature&sort=moviemeter,asc" rel="nofollow">1939</a>].<br /><br />In that respect, I think that 1962 was one of the final years of normalcy in the culture - certainly by 1970, it was becoming pretty clear that modernity would be an unmitigated disaster.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-32862740009107796502011-06-09T21:53:06.880-07:002011-06-09T21:53:06.880-07:00It seems to me that there are some things of our d...It seems to me that there are some things of our day that are quite common - even iconic - that won't be widely known about. I'm thinking specifically of one of the scourges of our age - tattoos. I see lots of people in the non-celluloid world with them - even grannies (well, I guess they are in the celluloid world - anyway, you know what I mean), but I don't see many on TV or in the movies. Granted I don't see much TV, and mostly only watch older movies. But still...... Am I in error in thinking this?Mr. Anonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-66836522898585048152011-06-09T20:01:34.279-07:002011-06-09T20:01:34.279-07:00"You guys who must be in your 50s or 60s are ..."You guys who must be in your 50s or 60s are scaring me now with this lingering Beatle fanaticism. "<br /><br />No lingering "fanaticism." At least not for me. Just remembering a topic that was extremely the-air-you-breath for about 4 years in adolescence. I don't think about it much, nor do I listen to 60s music, though there were some "hits" that remain matchless. The music was more uniting in those days because there were only a few places where you got it--the Top 40. <br />I read that the music you are most exposed to between the ages of 14 and 18 is the music that will always affect you most and will even bring back some of the behavior you exhibited at that age. One researcher saw her parents get lovey-dovey when they heard the big band music of the 40s and early 50s, that was popular when they were teenagers. Nothing else made them like that apparently.<br />But when you think about the "evolution" of so much popular "music" of the 90s, that's what scares me--the future of those who were adolescents circa 1992.paul isnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-69913276830664755532011-06-09T18:59:00.894-07:002011-06-09T18:59:00.894-07:00J.S.
Thanks for the comment about the screenwrite...J.S.<br /><br />Thanks for the comment about the screenwriter's tweet. <br /><br />SteveSteve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-57594646927629553532011-06-09T16:29:39.737-07:002011-06-09T16:29:39.737-07:00"The most "cognitively elite" count..."The most "cognitively elite" country in the world, by far, is China"<br /><br />......most cognitively elite? The phrase doesn't make sense. You don't know what the cognitive elite is.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-81392691869528634632011-06-09T16:19:23.846-07:002011-06-09T16:19:23.846-07:00Cute young guys, British or otherwise, did not hav...Cute young guys, British or otherwise, did not have shaggy hair in 1962 unless they were beatniks. Even beatniks' hair was what we today would call short; it just wasn't crew cut or carefully groomed with Vitalis, as nearly all nice young men's hair was. <br /><br />Based on the trailers, the movie struck me as being filled with really stupid, pointless anachronisms. I hate that. It's so easy to find out what people in 1962 really looked like, how they talked and dressed and thought. A few dollars on eBay will buy you a stack of vintage Life magazines, from which you will learn everything you need to know to create a reasonably accurate version of the early '60s. Why be wrong when you can get it right?Get Off My Lawn!noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-47632954585215900082011-06-09T15:51:17.414-07:002011-06-09T15:51:17.414-07:00Perhaps this is why cognitive elites are unconcern...<i>Perhaps this is why cognitive elites are unconcerned and even promote the dissolution of such traditional human bonds</i><br /><br />The most "cognitively elite" country in the world, by far, is China. And the Chinese seem to have no interest whatsoever in the dissolution of traditional human bonds, on the contrary, they seem positioned opposite American policy.<br /><br />Same goes for the Japanese, another "cognitively elite" population.<br /><br />Ditto for Israel.<br /><br />So maybe you should reevaluate the "cognitive elites" and their thinking, because it does not square with your characterization.Svigorhttp://majorityrights.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-79437027210758968662011-06-09T15:50:07.050-07:002011-06-09T15:50:07.050-07:00Right, why wouldn't you use 16 inch battleship...Right, why wouldn't you use 16 inch battleship guns?Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-21732066548142508032011-06-09T15:32:40.644-07:002011-06-09T15:32:40.644-07:00doh. should have just posted the CNN link of that ...doh. should have just posted the CNN link of that rape story, with the video of the guy:<br /><br />http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/06/09/california.sexual.assault.video/<br /><br />anyway back to 1962 itself. this was just about the time that missiles were good enough that the era of the superbomber was ending, and the missile silo/submarine era of the cold war started.<br /><br />i noticed in the x-men movie, a lot of missiles were launched from the decks of those US and soviet navy ships. i'm not an expert on naval matters but i do know about missiles, and i don't think the ships had those kinds of missiles in 1962. the US did not have a surface-to-surface missile until the harpoon in 1977. i did check wiki and the soviets had one in 1958, so maybe that scene in the movie where the soviets destroy their own freighter was technically possible.<br /><br />that incoming volley meant to kill all the mutants on the beachhead, would probably have been 90% cannon shells, in 1962. instead it appeared to be potrayed as mostly missiles.jodynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-56133842544536726492011-06-09T14:40:56.245-07:002011-06-09T14:40:56.245-07:00"Most people are not equipped to deal with th..."Most people are not equipped to deal with the unvarnished randomness, purposeless and unfairness of human existence and instinctively react vehemently against them (cf iSteve)."<br /><br />"Similarly , extremely intelligent individuals generally seem to bond more with each other on this trait than any ethno, religious, cultural or nationalistic factor. Perhaps this is why cognitive elites are unconcerned and even promote the dissolution of such traditional human bonds."<br /><br />Fascinating, Zarathustra. These two ideas though unconnected to each other in your comment get to the heart of why I come here. You cognitive elites are trying to impose an order on the rest of us which indicates you aren't any happier with random, purposeless existence than the rest of us. I assert that in the process of ordering the world in the way that benefits cognitive elites, you/they have made my life much more random, purposeless and unfair than it would've been without a certain type of meddling. Furthermore, I think it was done more out of spite than in a true attempt to improve society.Murphy's lifenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-55773521306246273402011-06-09T14:35:36.980-07:002011-06-09T14:35:36.980-07:00"If you started out making a movie about 2011..."If you started out making a movie about 2011, you'd miss lots of stuff that people in a half century will consider iconic about 2011."<br /><br />You won't miss it. Your 2011 movie couldn't help but be redolent of 2011. However, you won't know which of the stuff utterly mundane to you will be iconic in 2061. <br /><br />It's fun to speculate though. Here is my incomplete list:<br /><br />- The look of cars.<br />- Cell phones, DVDs, flat computer screens on desks, and any other kinds of short-lived technology.<br />- The food we eat, most likely the organic craze.<br />- Global warming fears. Oh, sorry, this is really 2004, not 2011.Has to benoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-6947771190025617932011-06-09T14:30:19.401-07:002011-06-09T14:30:19.401-07:00per your previous post steve:
in 1962, a woman co...per your previous post steve:<br /><br />in 1962, a woman could not take a cell phone video of a man who raped her then robbed her. but in 2011 she can.<br /><br />http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=13800608<br /><br />http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/06/woman_videos_rape_west_oakland.phpjodynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-76456068769708487872011-06-09T14:28:38.011-07:002011-06-09T14:28:38.011-07:00But it didn't seem obvious in 1962, when Love ...<i>But it didn't seem obvious in 1962, when Love Me Do, which is a pretty awful song, only reached #17 on the British pop charts.</i><br /><br />George Lucas used <a href="http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1020/141490.1020.A.jpg" rel="nofollow">Where were you in '62?</a> as the tagline for <i>American Graffiti</i>, which is the definitive movie about popular culture in 1962. There are several characters wearing slicked-back hairdos, in the style associated with the '50's, but not one with a mop top because, as you have suggested, the Beatles were not yet a sensation. The movie is full of music, mostly rock & roll, and all of it American. In the documentary that comes with the DVD, Lucas talks about the pre-British Invasion America very wistfully. <br /><br />Why the producers of X-Men are so obsessed with the era, I haven't a clue, since they probably look upon that time as the end of the Dark Ages.travisnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-33007553481769603862011-06-09T14:10:32.895-07:002011-06-09T14:10:32.895-07:00Was it always the case that young screenwriters, w...Was it always the case that young screenwriters, who have not lived through the events of the costume pictures they write, are as carelessly ananchronistic as today's are? Did 1940s screenwriters, for instance, while doing a picture set in the Gay '90s, merely do the equivalent of dropping names found in the encyclopedia (YouTube, today)?<br /><br />Probably. It still irks, though, doesn't it?<br /><br />Haven't seen the movie, but from your column I feel as if I had. "Hm, 1962... like, you know, what was going on then?... Well, there was the Beatles, and beehive 'dos... and racial discrimination... and astronauts... I've got a story! MLK tries to be an astronaut, soundtrack by the Beatles!... Won't work? Uh, well, I'll think of something eventually..." Tap, tap, tap goes the keyboard.<br /><br />These movies rarely resonate with oldsters who were there, unless those oldsters' only clue is the countless Time- or Newsweek-magazine retrospectives, replacing their memories with the "collective memory" we're all supposed to possess.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-65719437005188863212011-06-09T13:30:01.947-07:002011-06-09T13:30:01.947-07:00"The word "hot" strikes me as stran..."The word "hot" strikes me as strangely repulsive and vulgar referring to some form of beauty, but I guess that's the idea. As I said--it used to be used to evoke the idea of someone controlled entirely by incandescent biological urges."<br /><br />"Lennon had a masterful wit. Ringo was witty, too."<br /><br />Sorry, I wasn't really aware of culture until the mid 70s. By then drugs, sex and creating cults had made all but Paul look scary. I think the White Album came out about this time along with accusations of backward masking. Imagine how much more appealing the lyrics and looks of Paul McCartney and Wings to a very young girl. And what good is it to age well if you are scary, Paul, Ringo and certainly had he lived, John.<br /><br />You guys who must be in your 50s or 60s are scaring me now with this lingering Beatle fanaticism. If only you'd stopped with "I wanna hold your hand". No doubt you would've been into Marilyn Manson had you been born 10 years after me.gfsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-81385356742831599902011-06-09T13:19:47.618-07:002011-06-09T13:19:47.618-07:00"Does anyone else think that almost all of th...<i>"Does anyone else think that almost all of the early Beatles material is just terrible?"</i><br /><br />Yes. <br /><br /><i>"Black guy is upset that other people don't constantly harp on black oppression 24/7.<br /><br />In other news, dog bites man.<br /><br />Racial IQ gap still 1 standard deviation. See, e.g., above."</i><br /><br />Ta-Nehisi Coates seems to have a pretty high IQ. He's also a gifted writer. But he spends a lot more time thinking about black history pre-Civil Rights than post. <br /><br />He hasn't wrapped his mind around the IQ gap though, which ironically, makes him a meritocrat. He had little sympathy for the black firefighters in New Haven who didn't score high enough on the test.Frednoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-49835735725569587732011-06-09T12:49:49.738-07:002011-06-09T12:49:49.738-07:00Lennon had a masterful wit. Ringo was witty, too.Lennon had a masterful wit. Ringo was witty, too.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-9444291388663876342011-06-09T12:46:58.971-07:002011-06-09T12:46:58.971-07:00"Any woman would tell you that only Paul was ..."Any woman would tell you that only Paul was hot."<br /><br />I dunno about that, but actor James McAvoy definitely is reminiscent of McCartney in his likability.Steve Sailerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11920109042402850214noreply@blogger.com