
Gifted Children as Hidden Persuaders in the Cold War (2019) - Hooke
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hiddenpersuaders/blog/gifted-children-as-hidden-persuaders-in-the-cold-war/
======
DaiPlusPlus
After reading the opening paragraph I instantly thought of Greta Thunberg (in
a good way!), especially this part:

> or as dangerous future citizens who might use their unique talents to
> subvert authority.

...where the authority being subverted is that of a certain country's dominant
social class that _really_ doesn't like being told they're in the wrong...

\----

More cynically though: almost all of the certified G&T folks I knew in school
- and equivalents at university - gave up on their idealism and got degrees to
become a city quant.

Except for one... he got into UW at 16 and had a head for epidemiology but was
also interested in global geopolitics so he tried to major in both subjects at
undergrad (uh-oh...) - but being so young at university in a course where
social-networking is important meant he simply couldn't attend important
events because he was below the drinking age. Anywya long story short he's now
a water treatment plant operator and he tells me he's never been happier.

~~~
pritovido
I believe Greta Thunberg is someone put in place to EXERT authority.

If you go to the meetings of the financial elite of the world, they have in
their agenda exactly what GT wants: Taxing C02, forcing people to eat insects,
because meat and fish is unsustainable...

Greta is used to exert authority from those people in charge into the mass of
the population. It is the reason media loves GT, because media is controlled
by the big guys.

A dangerous person would be some environmentalist that actually knows what he
is talking about, and who is popular.

Idealism is not a virtue per se(just dreaming about a better world without
doing anything). I know quite a lot idealist that actually do all what they
can to improve the world. They become realist because it is hard. It is one
thing to say people should not abandon dogs and another thing creating a
refuge for animals and expending all your money feeding and taking care of
abandoned dogs, taking no vacations(because animals eat every day...)and so
on.

Realism is what happens when idealists take responsibility, and do something.
Reality has limits, it is always finite what you can do, dreams could be
perfect.

Greta is just a kid that is angry(because she is ill) and is being manipulated
from those in charge.

~~~
elil17
> If you go to the meetings of the financial elite of the world, they have in
> their agenda exactly what GT wants: Taxing C02, forcing people to eat
> insects, because meat and fish is unsustainable...

Taxing CO2 is literally the last thing “the financial elites” want - it’s a
policy that’s been pushed by scientists and economists for decades but never
gained political traction due to an intense lobbying campaign from the oil and
gas industry.

That’s also not what Thunberg advocates for. Thunberg primarily advocates for
more aggressive national emissions reductions targets. She says that her
drastic personal lifestyle changes (e.g. being vegan) are meant to raise
awareness about environmentalism, but that they are not a practical solution
and that the responsibility for eliminating pollution lies with the rich and
powerful, not consumers.

~~~
disown
> Taxing CO2 is literally the last thing “the financial elites” want - it’s a
> policy that’s been pushed by scientists and economists for decades but never
> gained political traction due to an intense lobbying campaign from the oil
> and gas industry.

Simply not true. "Scientists" didn't come up with carbon tax. Bankers did and
they hired economists to peddle the idea.

> That’s also not what Thunberg advocates for. Thunberg primarily advocates
> for more aggressive national emissions reductions targets. She says that her
> drastic personal lifestyle changes (e.g. being vegan) are meant to raise
> awareness about environmentalism,

Ah yes, lets take advice from a 15 year old who knows absolutely nothing about
anything. Climate fanatics scream "listen to the experts". Then then bring up
a manipulated teen with obvious mental and emotional problems as their
champion.

You say "the rich and powerful" aren't backing them and yet every major
organization from the UN to World Bank is pushing the "vegan" nonsense not to
mention carbon tax.

Remember "taxation without representation"? A global carbon tax is the epitome
of that. So who is king george now and who are the ones advocating for it?

If there is going to be a global tax, there should be a global government
which has authority from the global population. Not just from greedy
financiers who want another financial assets to leech money from the masses to
line their pockets.

~~~
dwaltrip
How do your propose we manage the negative externality of co2 and ensure a
good future?

A carbon tax in one way of internalizing the costs of co2 that are currently
not borne by any of the relevant market participants. It can also be done in a
revenue neutral way with a matching “carbon dividend” that is given back to
the citizens.

Is there another effective way?

------
ComodoHacker
>their identification and management was fraught with legacies of bias,
discrimination, and conflict. Following this, there was also a significant
level of concern about their disruptive potential, and their powerful minds.
This came to be negotiated by psychologists, families, schools, and in wider
culture.

All the same fears and anxieties we have with AI now. Like the exact subject
doesn't really matter as much as the process.

~~~
adamsea
Good point about this sounding similar to AI fears.

The whole AI fear thing seems weird to me. Not impossible, but, just the level
of hype around it combined with who is doing the hyping and now is strange.
Kind of like the modern version of Victorian gentry prognosticating.

------
rtkaratekid
I’m surprised no one has chimed in with their own experience yet. I was in one
of these programs (well, a moderate version of one, I didn’t skip grades or go
to college young) and I remember being told all the time that we were the
future leaders of the world. I became good friends with many of these people
and really, we all turned out really normal. Not much different from folks not
in those programs. I think I’ll do more research on the history of these
programs because I had no idea that it was a relic of WWII and the Cold War.
Really interesting to me.

~~~
indigochill
I didn't have any "gifted child" thing as a young kid (was homeschooled until
high school, did quite well but not astronomically in high school).

However, thanks to scoring a 1510/1600 on the SAT and having good grades, I
did get placed in a fairly prestigious cohort in college. My takeaway from
that is that the person's natural talent is just one factor, and not even a
particularly important one. It still takes a mix of actual work and
capitalizing on good connections (in our case, we got hooked up with good
connections thanks to being in this cohort) to get ahead. Maybe half of those
kids that entered the cohort washed out or decided to go into other fields
unrelated to the cohort (which I did). Some others got very normal jobs of no
particular prestige. I know a handful that leveraged it into fairly
prestigious jobs in our field.

My brother's another data point. He moved through grades in math at about 2x
the rate of the rest of us, so clearly had a gift for it. He was tutoring
college kids by high school and from then on has been making his living from
math tutoring, including some gifted children of the early-college variety.
What's a little strange to me is that he seems to have no natural ambition.
It's like he's totally dialed into math tutoring to the exclusion of
considering anything else. But if that's really his thing as it seems to be,
then more power to him.

~~~
richajak
Also never been considered as gifted for my relatively normal IQ. However for
a brief period during my teenage years, I suddenly became the top rank student
in my school for an unknown reason that I still cannot comprehend. It was such
an experience, as I was a normal student before that. I thought I was a genius
who could ace any subject. I managed to enter top university with early
admission for my good grades.

Too bad, I became 'normal' after that, discovered that a lot of people were
smarter than me. It was a humbling experience of not being special anymore.

Nevertheless, I am still grateful for that brief experience. I have much more
self confidence of my ability to solve any problem since then. Eventually I
managed to subtitute my 'giftedness' with hard work.

------
euroderf
Skipping a grade might seem like a good idea for a gifted child but then
bullying appears. Not recommended.

~~~
gen220
I think, like many things, grade-skipping can either make sense or not make
sense depending on the school, student, and classmates.

I skipped a grade in elementary school (joint decision between my parents,
teacher, principal, and at least nominally myself!), and didn't suffer from
any kind of bullying.

In my case, apparently I was actually creating trouble in my assigned grade,
by being a chatterbox. I would finish my work early, and then proceed to
hinder my friends' learnings by _talking_ with them (understandably, because I
was bored! you can only twiddle your thumbs or doodle for so long). Instead of
punishing me, my teacher recommended me for skipping.

Through my extended family and their friends, I know many kids who are in the
same circumstances these days: straight-A "troublemakers", especially in
elementary school. But nowadays, skipping grades is seen as "unfair" rather
than as a valid solution to a legitimate problem.

Because of something as arbitrary as their birthday, children are restricted
from participating in a sufficiently challenging environment. I think we as a
society are potentially trending too-rigid, _especially_ in elementary school.

I have no comment on skipping 2 or more grades, though; I suspect the benefit
of skipping grades drops off exponentially around 1 or 2 "skips", even for
very gifted children.

------
Cactus2018
This article has an _Ender 's Game_ aura.

~~~
RobertoG
It remembers me "Time" by Stephen Baxter (1) with the brilliant kids, being
influenced from the future to change present, and the fear reaction to them.

(1) -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_(Baxter_novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_\(Baxter_novel\))

------
annoyingnoob
My brother was considered gifted. Several of my friends were also considered
gifted. Almost all of them have done well enough but nothing really too out-
sized or world changing. I know one that is now homeless and another that
struggles to keep crappy jobs. From my perspective, the home environment and
family values makes a bigger difference in your life later than your IQ when
you are little.

------
curation
I was tested and told I was gifted at 11. (IQ152) I had hippy parents who let
me do anything. I left home at 15. I retired at 35 to pursue my life's work of
being in service of tearing down and re-imagining the Global West pro-slavery
democracy. Currently working in The Undercommons (Moten/Harney).

------
yters
the secret purpose of reddit and videogames is to neutralize this threat

~~~
rtkaratekid
I don’t know if that effect is intentional, but I do believe it is an effect
felt by everyone, not just “G&T”. Distraction from real life.

------
phreeza
Interesting that this mentions the short story The Veldt, which is also
dramatized as one of the radio plays in X Minus one that was on the front page
yesterday.

~~~
sitkack
[https://archive.org/details/OTRR_X_Minus_One_Singles/XMinusO...](https://archive.org/details/OTRR_X_Minus_One_Singles/XMinusOne55-08-04012TheVeldt.mp3)

> Yet instead, the precocious children lock their parents into a virtual
> reality room, where they allow them to be eaten by virtual – yet nonetheless
> carnivorous – lions.

I remember seeing this as an 80s or 90s scifi episode. The children disabled
the safeties on a holodeck like system and fed their parents to the lions.

It must have been "Ray Bradbury Theater",
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Veldt_(short_story)#Adapta...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Veldt_\(short_story\)#Adaptations)

double edit, it was.
[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0683235/fullcredits](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0683235/fullcredits)

