I read about Mr. Langan, the President of this not-for-profit in Malcolm Gladwell's book entitled, Outliers. I also saw three short videos of Mr. Langan on the Erroll Morris show on YouTube. In both Mr. Gladwell's book and on at least one of the short video segments from the Erroll Morris show, Mr. Langan said he knew no one "smarter" (quotes mine) than him and that he would communicate with any "man" (quotes mine again) who claimed to be. This seems to leave out black women who make this claim to him, as I did both in writing by e-mail to his topica.com listserv and by phone to the phone number on its voice mail listed on this website for his foundation earlier this week, for I have gotten no response to date (perhaps they were "out to lunch!") and my photo appears on my e-mails identifying me as a black woman. At least I told him that I don't know anyone smarter than me.
Also, in one of the video segments with Mr. Langan on the Erroll Morris show on YouTube, Mr. Langan actually said, with passion, that he is for Eugenics for breeding superior humans, intellectually and morally, and that this has worked with animals. Unfortunately, the facts seem to refute Mr. Langan's logic because to my knowledge Eugenics has been tried many times throughout recorded human history and has never worked as planned, especially among humans. This is clearly portrayed in movies like, "Gattaca," and "A Family Thing," in our own day, the latter starring Robert Duvall, a white man, and James Earl Jones, a black man as brothers, both of which films are the story of most Americans unbeknownst to them. In Gattaca, two of the Eugenetically (is that a word?) bred characters in a future time, one played by Jude Law, turned out to be inferior in many ways, while the naturally bred character played by Ethan Hawke with all his faults turned out to be superior in almost every way, including physically. Even among certain dogs, like English boxers, too much pure breeding has led to many problems for the resultant progeny.
Further, it seems a little "mongrel" in the gene pool adds a bit of hardiness as Mr. Langan's own questionable heritage and upbringing seem to show. If his plan of Eugenics was in place when it was time for him to be bred, it is quite probable that he would never have come into existence to plan any Eugenics program like most people who want or wanted a Eugenics program. His "plan"in this vein, is therefore highly laughable, and "boneheaded" but inconsequential, I think, because I don't think he's ever going to pull such a thing off because he's not practical enough to do even that. I don't know about his wife, but really, I don't think the world has anything to worry about from those two or from their colleagues.
Finally, in light of all of the above, I don't think it is necessary for anyone to fret over this person or his organization or to laud their intelligence. He may, and I say, may, have an IQ of over 200 and have won $250,000 on a TV trivia game show, but a genius with the practicality and good old horse sense needed to implement sensible, practical improvements in the world, I would say that he definitely is not regardless, again, of the formation of his erstwhile foundation. I think we should all thank whatever powers there are that in the final analysis it's pretty sure that Mr. Langan and his ilk will not be responsible for how the world is run in the future!
Review from Guidestar