I’m a big Mike Judge fan. King of the Hill will go down as a classic of American television, and HBO’s Silicon Valley is one of my favorite shows currently airing. The 2006 satirical film Idiocracy, written and directed by Judge, relates the story of a man who, after a military mishap, finds himself in a far-future United States in which humanity’s average intelligence has taken a nosedive. The main character, played by Luke Wilson, soon comes to the realization that he is the smartest man on Earth, and is tasked with saving the planet from the junk food-eating, instant gratification-seeking masses. The film is riotously funny, but its hard hitting satire can at times touch a more serious chord in its illumination of worrying trends in society. But it is, after all, just a sci-fi comedy, a brief rumination on a what-if future that has “regressed towards the mean.” Society could never come to the reflect the one portrayed in Idiocracy… Or could it?

Pundits and politicians can and do pontificate endlessly on how to “fix” the country, peddling each new policy as the one to give everyone jobs and make their country a wonderland. This wonderland, of course, never seems to materialize, and progress by political means never seems to occur. What is the cause of this? Simple- People are too dumb. I know, I know, it sounds trivial, but I honestly believe that the masses tendency towards low intelligence is the greatest obstacle to the fulfillment of liberty, ancapistan, a “free society”, or what have you. I also believe-and there might be some science to support my suspicions- that society is getting progressively more stupid.

Dysgenics is the study of the accumulation of what many would consider unfavorable genes in a population. If anyone is familiar with H.G. Wells’ (who happened to be a massive commie douche) sci-fi classic The Time Machine then they have a perfect example of dysgenic evolution in action; in the far-future Earth that the eponymous device sends the protagonist human evolution has split mankind into two divergent offshoots- the childlike, simple Eloi and the brutish, cave dwelling Morlocks. The Eloi, as the protagonist presumes, are the descendants of Earth’s upper classes, who, after millennia of prolonged decadence due to man’s mastery over nature, have grown simple and lost any drive to further knowledge. In a sense, the Eloi had created an environment in which the need for strength and intelligence had disappeared. Without these environmental pressures selecting for traits that corresponded to these “favorable” attributes, humanity atrophied, both physically and mentally. While Wells most certainly had only a rudimentary knowledge of ecology and genetics, I believe he was conveying a general theory that could be supported by more modern science.

Enter r/K selection theory. This theory classifies two basic reproduction strategies that biological populations utilize. In a sense we can think of it as quantity versus quality. r- selection focuses on reproducing as rapidly as possible. These species are often “prey” species, such as rabbits or mice (both known for their high growth rate), that opt to produce multiple large litters over their lifetime. Since many of their offspring never reach adulthood and have relatively abundant food supplies, r-selected species tend to invest low amounts of energy into parenting their offspring. After all, to r-selected species, the only real maxims for life are to eat and mate, and to do each a lot. What is there to teach as a parent?

Contrasted with the r-selected species are the K group. K-selected species are the quality in the quantity versus quality reproduction battle. These species usually delay reproduction, and when they do they often produce much smaller litters than r-species. However, these offspring are usually larger and possess longer lifespans. These reproduction strategies usually arise in environments where resources are more scarce and inter- and intra-species competition are common. For the K-selecting species, such as whales, wolves, or elephants, parental nurture is crucial. Also, these species are more likely to develop pack mentalities wherein a high amount of cooperation and trust between individual organisms is needed.

So, where does r/K selection find itself in the human intelligence discussion? First off we need to avoid the trappings of considering humans as somehow “separate” from other biological entities. After all, our culture and societal norms are really just fancy dressings to ensure that everyone gets the resources and the reproductive opportunities that they desire. I believe that there is a chance that humans, or at least some populations of them, could be transitioning from a K-selection strategy to an r-selection strategy. It could be argued that pre-Industrial Revolution humanity most closely represented the K’s. Life more resembled the short, nasty brutishness that philosophers like Hobbes wrote about. Institutions such as the nuclear family probably arose to raise the collective time preference of a genetic population. However, the advent of the Industrial Revolution and the sweeping democratization of society that followed changed these conditions.

Let’s observe society as it exists today. Environmental pressures that existed and prompted humanity’s K-selecting strategies are dwindling in the West and, to a lesser extent, much of the rest of the world. Wherein previously those in western society who lacked future-orientedness simply died, failing to pass on their genes, those seemingly irresponsible people are today artificially sustained, if not encouraged to live these sorts of lifestyles. Large scale welfare programs and other forms of social democracy have effectively removed K-selecting pressures from society. Why invest large amounts of energy in raising a family when big daddy gubmint will provide everything you need? Why even bother getting married? In connection to these societal developments I believe we will begin to see corresponding physical and intellectual changes in human populations.

If r-selection comes to the be the norm for human populations then certain genes will begin to disappear. Let’s not forget that K-selecting species are overwhelmingly creatures that possess greater individual intelligence and physical fitness than their r counterparts. Genes that correspond to intelligence and physical fitness will begin to fade, and I believe that societal standards will begin to lag as well. This largely parallels Hans Hermann-Hoppe’s theory that democracy is a de-civilizing force for humanity. In order to stem the tide of the dumbing down of society, democracy and the welfare, lowest common denominator policies need to be phased out. Nietzsche said that democracy caused men to be unable to “feel any shame for being unable to rise above” his desire “to satisfy a host of petty wants through the calculation of long-term self-interest.”

-Licinius