Eugenics v numbers

In 1859 Charles Darwin published his theory of natural selection as the engine of evolution. Natural selection is just that, natural, no external agency decides on a being’s right to survive or not, just circumstances. But the same period saw the development of the theory of Social Darwinism, a construct used to justify certain political, social, or economic views. In other words, Darwin’s theory appeared to be confirming scientifically what Social Darwinists already believed to be true about human society — that the fit inherited qualities such as industriousness and the ability to accumulate wealth, while the unfit were innately lazy and stupid.

in the late 1800s, Sir Francis Galton, a half-cousin of Darwin, went a step further by launching a new “science” he called Eugenics, aimed at improving the human race by ridding society of its “undesirables.” His proposition was to improve mankind by propagating only elites, particularly the British elite! His argument was that social institutions such as welfare and mental asylums allowed inferior humans to survive and reproduce at higher levels than their “superior” counterparts in Britain’s wealthy class

Eugenics is not a science but a social construct. One section of society takes upon itself the right to decide if another section of society deserves to live and procreate; nothing natural or scientific about that. But the idea became very popular during the first half of the 20th century; 32 U.S. states passed laws that resulted in the forced sterilization of more than 64,000 Americans including immigrants, people of colour, unmarried mothers and the mentally ill.

Eugenics had some very powerful and famous supporters including George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, Marie Stopes, Theodore Roosevelt and Bertrand Russell but its popularity was abruptly curtailed by WWll when the Nazis took it one step further and used it as an excuse for practising genocide in the name of racial purity.

Having kept a low profile for half a century, Eugenics is now raising its ugly head again in the world dominated by Neoliberalism via advocates such as Bill Gates and Donald Trump.

It is a tragic fact that homo sapiens has over-bred to the point of destroying the very environment that gave us life and so many of the other species we should be sharing it with. We are the locusts, the deadly mosquitoes, the cancer, the plague that infects all it touches. We need to cull ourselves but whom would we trust to make that decision? Not an elite who can thank the accident of money and a good education for their self-assumed superiority.

The problem is not quality of life but quantity. There are too many humans and the thought that we should just spread our pollution to other planets is horrifying. The Chinese tried a one child per family experiment that didn’t work as well as it could have because they happen to have a culture that favours male children, so they ended with a surplus of males. If we could introduce an egalitarian, one child per family programme for at least one generation worldwide and across all levels of society with no special privileges for kings or paupers and no preferential treatment for either sex, might that not that be a first step to a painless cull?

I know it’s a pipe dream. The drawback with democratic governments is that the politicians are more interested in retaining their position and power than in the common good. It’s votes that count and votes need people. When COVID 19 hit the UK and we had our first lockdown, what did our Prime Minister announce when the lockdown was about to be lifted? Why, that one of the first things to be resumed would be IVF — in vitro fertilization procedures — just what we all needed! If only every individual would take responsibility for their place on this amazing planet rather than indulging their individual wishes……but that’s another pipe dream!

Sources

History.com Editors (2018) Social Darwinism (2018) https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/social-darwinism A&E Television Networks access 12 January 2012

Social Darwinism; American Museum of Natural History.
America’s Hidden History: The Eugenics Movement; Nature. September 18, 2014.
In the Name of Darwin; PBS.
Victims of the Nazi Era: Nazi Racial Ideology; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum