Nazi Germany is the extreme example, but it makes the point: given the ability to interfere in any way with the reproductive process, even the slightest inroads to controlling what kind of people are born and what kind are not, ANY government with the wrong person or persons in power (which could occur in any government in the world) could – legally or illegally, hidden or visible, publicly condemned or publicly endorsed – wield enormous power over the “type” of people that they want…and do NOT want…born.
To suggest it’s not highly possible, and plausible, that this would eventually happen to some degree is naive. Science creates, it does NOT control. Power controls, government controls; and what is made to be benevolent can and always will have the potential to be used – by those with no interest in benevolence – to its worst possible extent. There are many examples in history of initially benevolent discoveries warped and twisted to be extremely malevolent.
It’s like the saying goes…
“First they came for…”
Even starting out with only the SLIGHTEST interference has very real potential to lead to, eventually, total control.
If you believe that any government, given the ability to in any way control reproduction in terms of filtering out “undesirable” elements…or to have any say in what “types” of people are born…would not potentially misuse this ability, you are either incredibly naive or you have a faith in the essential “Good” of humanity that is well-intentioned but false.
Thoughts that came so easily after a recent re…viewing of Star Trek:TOS ‘Space Seed’…
A suggested slogan: “Eugenics – For When You Want Your Accomplishments Created In A Test Tube”.
Really that’s all it is…nothing a “superman” has as ability is earned or worked for in any way, merely given. No accomplishment, no hardship, no effort…pride over how they happened, by pure chance, to be created.
Now that’s just sad.
Khan is pretty much the equivalent of Mr. Dingle, The Strong…except more dangerous. Given amazing ability (by pure chance), using that ability on petty, selfish, completely NON-“superior” actions and pursuits.
The brilliant idea of the eugenically enhanced super-mind:
Conquer the world.
Wow…noone’s ever thought of that before.
In fact, anyone that believes that by virtue of an enhanced ability to learn/improve/comprehend that they did NOTHING to acquire that they are in ANY way “superior” to others is actively INFERIOR…a completely illogical, self-deluded, LaVeyan-like idiot who would fail John Cleese’s school in the first year; worthy of pity if they weren’t dangerous by their inherent boorish, arrogant, petty “goals”.
Eugenics is a vicious, brutal, disgusting, totalitarian, fascist and complete violation of individuality and the rights, dignities, and worths of the individual.
Unless you stand to gain from this (wanting only the best, strongest, most intelligent genetically engineered I-hesitate-to-call-them-humans to make up your workforce) or unless you have absolutely no regard for individuality, liberty, or the concept of personal identity as sacred, I fail to see how any “intelligent” person cannot understand this. Assuming, of course, they have the basic morals of a non-sociopath.
People are born the way they are, and everything they do (assuming they aren’t in the .1 percent) requires at least SOME effort…an active desire to learn or improve, not an egotistical vegetable-like state of soaking in things because you can’t help it, like some sort of sponge or a parasitical being that required no apparatus.
In FACT, people born eugenically “perfect” would be an active detriment to the human race: perfection would become the norm, destroying individuality…among other things. Since only the most desirable traits are necessary, selective filtering would make mankind smarter, stronger, healthier…more homogenous, with fewer and fewer variations, closer and closer to simply clones of the one “perfect” example.
You can only make people perfect by taking away their humanity.
Knowledge or power gained without effort lacks wisdom.
Is the slow devolution of humanity into more perfect, more machine-like, more egotistical – the slow transformation from diversity to a more Borg or Landru inspired society something positive?
Let’s not make this statement accurate:
“This is a soulless society, Captain. It has no spirit, no spark. All is indeed peace and tranquility; the peace of the factory, the tranquility of the machine. All parts working in unison.”
HOW I WROTE THIS:
I think
I went to school
I’ve read books
I’ve read articles
I’ve undergone hardships
I’ve actively analyzed with the possibility of my premise being incorrect
I’ve expended effort
I have morals
I am not an elitist
And lastly and leastly, I was born with a certain degree of intelligence
Inspirational Quote: “Khan…I’m LAUGHING at the ‘superior’ intellect.”
And, of course, the “superior” intellect responds with arrogance and stupidity.
No surprize.
Also see:
‘Space Seed’
‘The Return Of The Archons’
‘Gattaca’
‘Brave New World’ (imagine it’s better written)
‘1984’
‘Minority Report’
‘The Hangman’
“Foot-In-The-Door Technique”
“Creeping Normality”