“Stirring the possum” and European IQ

“Stirring the possum” is a common expression in Australia but I doubt that the term is much understood outside Australia so I will try to summarize what it means. For a start, Australia has lots of possums (a different species from the American opossum). I even have some living in the roofspace of my house—as is common in Brisbane. They are however nocturnal and if you disturb one during the day it may well snarl and spit at you. And people know that. So if they DO stir a possum, they expect to be growled at.

So when Australians deliberately say something provocative but not terribly serious they will often refer to it as “Stirring the possum”. Note however that such stirs are intended in good humour. Very few Australians would think of harming a possum (unlike in New Zealand, where they trap them) so stirring one is not an aggressive act. It is seen as a bit of harmless fun.

So when I referred recently to the interview in “The Times” with Richard Lynn as an example of “Stirring the possum” I was implying that Lynn was having a bit of fun with “The Times” rather than making a fully-rounded assessment of his subject—which was national differences in European IQ. And the claim that Germans and Poles were considerably more intelligent than the English was indeed a delicious stir.

So I think I should note that on pages 21 and 22 of his recent book “Race Differences in Intelligence” (reviewed here), Lynn reports considerable variations in European IQ estimates: Irish from 87 to 97, Poland from 92 to 106, and Germans from 90 to 107. And if, as is common practice, one takes the median of these scores, one ends up with averages as follows: Ireland, 92; Poland 99; Germany 99. And none of that is particularly surprising.

What is slightly surprising is that Lynn’s comments about European IQ were greeted and publicized without rancour—while the vastly lower median scores found with African populations are usually ignored and sometimes execrated. But an impartial committment to truth is of course not to be expected from the Media.

Posted by jonjayray on Tuesday, March 28, 2006 at 09:52 PM in
Comments (7) | Tell a friend

Comments:

Posted by Jim Kalb on March 28, 2006, 10:18 PM | #

Trivia: the American equivalent of “stirring the possum” is “yanking his chain.”

Posted by ben tillman on March 29, 2006, 12:07 AM | #

Or “winding his watch” or “busting his balls”. At least in Rhode Island.

Posted by Fred Scrooby on March 29, 2006, 12:25 AM | #

Thanks, Jim Kalb. Now I understand the expression better. I thought it was something like that but wasn’t sure.

Posted by Mark Richardson on March 29, 2006, 12:54 AM | #

I actually have stirred a possum. I thought it was one of the letter boxes we have in Oz with a possum sculpture on top, but it turned out to be the real thing (it was late and getting dark).

As John explained in the post, the possum wasn’t too happy at me trying to ascertain what it had been sculpted from.

Posted by Niozilda on March 29, 2006, 02:27 AM | #

Mm, possum is delicious, much like tender veal.

Posted by Andrew on March 29, 2006, 02:57 AM | #

Go stir up a Tassi Devil, and see what your bones look like.
Poor things, they are dieing off from Multiculturalisms also, lack of quarantine, and now dieing off in their natural habitat from exotic imported diseases.

Posted by Aussie Bob on March 29, 2006, 08:33 AM | #

Just to “stir the possum” a little more. Did eugenics have any effect on German and Swedish IQ’s? I know those two nations did practice eugenics with enthusiasm for a number of years. I am not sure if it was widspread enough to have had any effect at all. Does anyone know?

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