Lipton Matthews, a Jamaican, writes in Aporia about the soft but unabashed social engineering along genetic lines in Singapore, and what he thinks will come of Jamaica's attempt to do the same: Lee Kuan Yew and Eugenomics. We have talked in Europe and North America about the possibility of genetic knowledge turning into selection and government nudging some people to marry and have children and others to stop. Now some countries are trying it. You can think about whether you like it based on real examples now.
In parallel to these social engineering measures, Lee crafted a meritocratic bureaucracy that harnessed some of Singapore’s best minds. The Singapore Civil Service and its associated institutions were designed to attract top talent from local universities. Salaries for bureaucrats and politicians were pegged to those in the private sector to ensure that the brightest citizens found public service appealing. In Lee's mind, competent leadership and national IQ were intimately linked. As he once remarked in reference to the famous book by Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein:
The Bell Curve is a fact of life.
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