I don’t believe LW is a cult, but I can see where intelligent, critical thinking people might get that impression. I also think that there may be elitist and clannish tendencies within LW that are detrimental in ways that could stand to be (regularly) examined. Vigilance against irrational bias is the whole point here, right? Shouldn’t that be embraced on the group level as much as on an individual one?
Part of the problem as I see it is that LW can’t decide if it’s a philosophy/science or a cultural movement.
For instance, as already mentioned, there’s a great deal of jargon, and there’s a general attitude of impatience for anyone not thoroughly versed in the established concepts and terminology. Philosophies and sciences also have this problem, but the widely accepted and respected philosophical and scientific theories have proven themselves to the world (and weren’t taken very seriously until they did). I personally believe there’s a lot of substance to the ideas here, but LW hasn’t delivered anything dramatic to the world at large. Until it does so it may remain, in the eyes of outsiders, as some kind of hybrid of Scientology and Objectivism—an insular group of people with a special language, a revered spokesperson, and who claim to have “the answers”.
If, however, LW is supposed to be a cultural movement, then I’m sorry, but ”ur doin it wrong”. Cultural movements gain momentum by being inclusive and organic, and by creating a forum for people to express themselves without fear of judgment. Movements are bottom up, and LW often gives the impression of being top down.
I’m not saying that a choice has to be made or even can be made, merely that there are conflicting currents here. I don’t know if I have any great suggestions. I guess the one thing I can say is that while I’ve observed (am observing) a lot of debate and self-examination internally, there’s still a strong outward impression of having found “the answers”. Perhaps if this community presented itself a little more as a forum for the active practice of critical thinking, and a little less as the authoritative source for an established methodology for critical thinking.
And if that doesn’t work, we could always try bus ads.
I’ve commented more extensively on the scientific and logical basis for Caplan’s ideas elsewhere, including my serious concern about his reliance on separated-at-birth twin studies, but I’ll limit my comments here to something a little more subtle.
While some of his data about intelligence and physical health seemed pretty sound, I remember his conclusions about personality and happiness seeming a lot sketchier. Which makes sense since the psychological health of any given individual is extremely difficult to quantify (much less the effect of one person’s psychological health on another’s). But I think it’s these aspects that good parents are most concerned with: Will my child live a life that is largely stress free? Will I pass on my bad habits? How can I teach my child to be able to form strong and healthy emotional connections to others?
When I (non-scientifically) observe the reasonably sane parents I know, my general fear is not that they’re making their children stupid or that they’re sabotaging their child’s future health. My fear is that they’re passing on a host of much more insidious problems—body image issues, co-dependency, repression of anger, etc. When adults go into therapy, it’s usually not because they’re worried about their lack of income or talent or intelligence, it’s because they’re struggling with complex issues relating to self-esteem, trust, and identity.
Now I admit that these are extremely fuzzy concepts—the “science” of psychological health is still extremely young and hard data is difficult to obtain—but I’m not the one writing a book on parenting. What I’m trying to get at is that while I agree that the modern trend of “tiger-parenting” is useless at best and damaging at worst, that doesn’t mean there might not be some less-cartoonish improvements that parents ought to adopt. And Caplan’s book doesn’t just present the research for your consideration, he makes a point of boldly telling you to just stop worrying. I think his evidence doesn’t justify such boldness, and that he’s trying to take the air out of a question which still deserves a great deal of cultural attention.