Chapter 21, The Way We Are Headed Summary and Analysis

Chapter twenty-one speculates about how the increasing separation of classes based on IQ will affect American life in government. They expect for the high-IQ elites to be increasingly isolated. They predict that the smartest will tend to be the wealthiest as time goes on and that the quality of life for people with low IQs will increase.

The authors reaffirm their commitment to the view that there is an 'invisible migration' of high IQ individuals into social elites. They argue that life has been good for the socioeconomic elites and that this demonstrates the triumph of the American ideal. But they are worried about the formation of a class of high-IQ individuals. These individuals often have very different cultural habits, watching far less television and reading more often. Since high-IQ is...