Gould maintained that no one should be surprised that The Bell Curve’s publication “coincided exactly… with a new age of social meanness.” The Bell Curve, said Gould, “must… be recording a swing of the political pendulum to a sad position that requires a rationale for affirming social inequalities as dictates of biology.” He criticized the proponents of this new meanness for their calls to “slash every program of social services for people in genuine need… but don’t cut a dime, heaven forbid, from the military… and provide tax relief for the wealthy.”
