Contraception and other stuff

View 716 Monday, March 05, 2012

I have just done a long essay on contraception as the answer to the first letter in the mailbag I just posted. There is a great deal more. That will have to do for today.

I will be back to work tomorrow.

James Q. Wilson, RIP.

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/james-q-wilson-co-author-of-broken-windows-policing-theory-dies-in-boston-at-age-80/2012/03/02/gIQAVVfqmR_story.html>

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Roland Dobbins

The following is probably evidence of approaching senility. I ought to delete it, but I won’t.

I first met James Q. Wilson at the 1978 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, DC. I was chairing some small panel or another, perhaps the one on the limits to knowledge, but my major purpose there was as Press. I was the science correspondent for the National Catholic Press, and Science Editor of Galaxy Science Fiction. Wilson was at that time known as ‘the ant man’. He had done considerable naturalist research on community insects (as had Rufus King at the University of Iowa). He had begun to apply his studies to human society and what was called sociobiology. Some of his suggestions were greatly resented by the Left, and particularly by SESPA, Scientists and Engineers for the People as I understood it, but apparently the official name was Scientists and Engineers for Political Action. In any event they were not invited to participate in Dr. Wilson’s discussion and presentation, so they decided in the usual leftist way to refute him with an intellectual argument. As Dr. Wilson began to speak, two of them ran forward and took the pitcher of water provided for the speaker and emptied it over his head, shouting “Wilson, you’re all wet!” There was much laughter.

This being February in Washington DC it could not have been a very pleasant experience, but Wilson took it with aplomb. There were several other SESPA in the room mumbling about, but when I began to get photographs of each one they left the room. Wilson present his paper on sociobiology and roles, and the thirty or so attendees applauded, and I invited Dr. Wilson for an Irish Coffee in the bar of the hotel where we were meeting. The Mayflower perhaps, or the Sheraton out on Connecticut; I don’t recall. I got a nice interview with him and a good story for the paper, and the germ of a Galaxy column. And of course one more story about the intellectual integrity of SESPA. I had previously got pictures of them storming a session conducted by Herrnstein of Harvard, Page of Connecticut, and Sidney Hook of New York. The slogan of the day was “Herrnstein, Hook, and Page. Let’s put them in a cage!” They also asserted their right to attend the session even though they were not registered for the AAAS conference and had no badges. This one took place in the Hilton in San Francisco.

I followed Wilson’s publications over the years, and was delighted when my son Richard was able to take several classes from Wilson as an undergraduate at UCLA.

Wilson was best known for his “broken window” observation: if in a deteriorating neighborhood broken windows and other signs of neglect are permitted to stand, the neighborhood will deteriorate rapidly; whilst if the appearances of order are preserved, there will be more orderly behavior there. The theory was adopted by the New York Police Department and is largely credited for the restoration of orderly civilization of much of New York. The NYPD Police Commissioner was hired to be Los Angeles Chief of Police and during his tenure here applied the principles to ‘neighborhood policing’ with a great reduction in crime rates in many neighborhoods. Those interested in community work and restoration of civilization would do well to read his On Human Nature, which looks at the influence of biology on behavior and culture.

My son was always glad to have him as a professor and took several classes with him at UCLA. Alas I never saw him teach. I should have taken the opportunity to go over the hill and have dinner with him; I am sure I could have waggled that by reminding him of the time when he was all wet. Alas I never did. RIP

And having written that I realize I am talking about two different Drs. Wilson. The Ant Man was the one I met in DC in 1978. He started sociobiology. James Q Wilson was a political scientist who came to prominence years later for his Broken Windows theories. Two minutes reflection would have shown me that these were not the same two people, but for some reason probably having to do with my head being stuffed up I managed to entwine the two in my head. The one who got the water pitcher poured over his head by SESPA was Edmund O. Wilson. Oddly enough I have books by both of them. I can only plead a temporary lapse of good sense.  I never met James Q. Wilson although I would have liked to; my son had several courses with him at UCLA.

That will teach me to write last minute addenda at midnight. Apologies. This does illustrate one of the advantages of being me: when I get something wrong, it doesn’t take long for someone to tell me I got it wrong. And boy did I get this one wrong.