From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Wed Aug 09 2000 - 22:18:24 MDT
At 08:51 PM 9/08/00 -0700, Spike wrote:
> "In the next 10 or 20 years we could have
> eugenics with a smiling face.
>
>[Sounds good to me.]
>
>"We will no longer
> require the lower classes to have fewer
> babies;
>
>[He was doing great until this comment, which demonstrates
>that he is an idiot. I know of no laws requiring lower classes
>to have fewer babies.]
Spike, Rifkin's referring to the traditional eugenics platform, which *did*
suggest laws restricting the number of kids that `stupid', `degenerate',
`worthless' poor people might have. That was a bad, offensive approach that
has given the whole idea of genetic improvement the stench it has today
(well, and Hitler's borrowing of it didn't help, either).
Actually I've rarely seen such a vulgar composite of old rubbish
masquerading as a BBC news report.
I especially relished:
>The discovery has been seized on by
> some on the Right who claim it backs
> their view that the way people turn
> out depends more on the genes with
> which they are born rather than on
> the schools they attend.
Ah, this explains why they send their kids to Eton, eh? Then again, I
suppose intelligence per se has never been a big consideration in Tory
schooling.
Damien Broderick
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