[February 29, 2024] One exciting duty I had as a junior NCO in the Army was working with Recruiters and understanding the pressure they are under to enlist young adults into the service. The biggest problem was young folks with low intelligence. The Army would not allow them to join. We asked ourselves, ‘What do you do with people with a low IQ?’
There is a belief in academic circles that says people are basically the same, and if we could only provide education and social resources correctly, then everyone could succeed. A contrasting view is that if people would get off their lazy asses and get a job, there is a job they can do. Both these beliefs are wrong.
The U.S. military has a test you must pass to be inducted into the service.1 The reason is a need to quickly place people, based on ability, into the right jobs and leadership positions. This is critical during wartime when the force must be expanded rapidly. During the first part of the 20th century, similar tests were used to identify young men from the lower economic strata, who could then be placed into military officer positions.
What the military discovered in their research was that if you had an IQ of roughly 85, then there was nothing the military could do to train you into someone
“… by the 1980s, they [the military] had determined that if you had an IQ of less than 83, there was not a damn thing that the army could do, the armed forces could do to transform you into someone who could do something that was more productive than non-productive.” – Dr. Jordan Peterson (source here)
According to Dr. Peterson, the problem we have as a country is that this is about 15 percent of the population, a staggering amount. There is a social good in identifying people in the lower classes, getting them the right resources, and pushing them upward in the societal strata.
But we have a problem today. Those who are on the low end of the intelligence scale, as measured by IQ tests, attempting to find a place in a more computational-based workplace are in a difficult position. This problem was identified by Hernstein and Murray in their 1996 book.2
Dr. Peterson tells us that there are about as many people below an IQ of 85 as above 115. “Normal” is considered between these two numbers. The 115 IQ is the average intelligence of an undergraduate student in college. As regular readers know, I’m a retired Engineer Officer at Flag rank. Yet, I’ve worked with military officers whose minds were so fast and competent in understanding and identifying astoundingly complex problems that I felt like a first grader. The range of intelligence in humans is fantastic.
In an increasingly complex world, those with lower intelligence levels find it difficult to survive. Their jobs are disappearing. What we are not doing is providing a way out of this problem.
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- Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB). Link here to the military explanation of the test, including sample questions.
- The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, 1996, by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray.
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🙏 This is a community problem that must be solved at the community level. Churches and the good men and women of those communities need to step up to solve it. 🙏
True! Without the community, you only have the hand of the fed govt and that hand will destroy.
Pastor John. I agree with you. We needed to step up to help those needed and want it. People learn at different levels thus we have to be creative.
Keep up the great writing. 😉
“There is a belief in academic circles that says people are basically the same, and if we could only provide education and social resources correctly, then everyone could succeed. A contrasting view is that if people would get off their lazy asses and get a job, there is a job they can do. Both these beliefs are wrong.” — Gen. Doug Satterfield. He nails it with this observation. And while others ignore the problem, at least we now know that to be the case and should try to address it somehow. Gen. S., please address this more in the future. Thank you.
Yep, but I don’t think our politicians will address it because they know these folks either don’t vote or they vote whatever their families tell them to vote. No advertisements or logical arguments will matter.
Smarts! That is what most of us lack.
Gen. Satterfield, thank you for these articles. I wanted to thank you for your series of letters to your granddaughter. Each day I log on, I hope to find another one. Keep writing them for us. ❤
Loving Gen. Satterfield’s daily blog. Each day I learn something new and useful. Today is a great point that Gen. Satterfield makes. What do you do with people with a low iq. IQ is a measure of intelligence, not perfect but still a good measure. No wonder people hate those who study intelligence. The reason is that we are mostly born with it and there are great differences.
True. People are not the same and for many reasons. If you’ve ever owned several dogs during your lifetime, you will quickly understand that dogs are different in intelligence, emotions, physical strength, etc. in fact, they are bred specifically for certain traits.
dogs are great
Hi folks, it is always wonderful to be on Gen. Satterfield’s blog and make a comment that might actually mean something. I hope to make a contribution. Today’s article brings up a point never addressed by politicians, unless you call throwing money at the problem. The real problem is like Gen. S. writes, everyone assumes everyone is equal if only all of us have the same resources. That is untrue. It is a liberal lie.
A very tough problem. Remember that these people vote and vote often two or three times in an election. The Democrat Party wants it that way because this is how they keep them on the plantation.
Dern, kinda unsupported comment, right? You need to explain more where you are headed.
YEP! 🤦♂️ Do tha face plant.
Need to rethink some of your comments? I do agree the Democrat Party is a destructive force in America but keeping dumb people on the plantation? Maybe not.