I was recently discussing Chesterton's fence with someone but needed help remembering where it appeared in the Apostle of Common Sense's vast library. Imagine my delight when an internet search for the answer brought me to this article by my friend. Thanks, Bob!
Did eugenics disappear with a bang or a whimper? Or did it just change clothes?
There must have come a point where eugenics was abandoned at least on the surface. Was Chesterton's position then acknowledged, resented or just ignored.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905
But it would seem that even those who know it - choose to ignore its lessons.
Why is that? Is the echo chamber of the internet - driven by flawed "recommendation systems" at the heart of the problem?
Excellent point. The Eugenics Record Office was shuttered in 1939 and eugenics ceased to be a topic of polite conversation. But the eugenic sterilizations did not cease, and I'm not sure they even slowed afterward. They simply went underground--no longer public bragging points. North Carolina had a state Board of Eugenics till 1977. Virginia's sterilization program continued till 1979. California's program continued in prisons till 2014. Serious questions have been raised about who and how Canadians are steered toward its burgeoning medical assistance in dying program. Precision genetics offers new questions.
My maternal grandfather was a serious progressive. He always told me a conservative was just a progressive who was late to the party. “Whatever progressives championed fifty years ago, conservatives champion today.”
I was recently discussing Chesterton's fence with someone but needed help remembering where it appeared in the Apostle of Common Sense's vast library. Imagine my delight when an internet search for the answer brought me to this article by my friend. Thanks, Bob!
Thanks, Trevor! Glad you liked it. —Bob
Did eugenics disappear with a bang or a whimper? Or did it just change clothes?
There must have come a point where eugenics was abandoned at least on the surface. Was Chesterton's position then acknowledged, resented or just ignored.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905
But it would seem that even those who know it - choose to ignore its lessons.
Why is that? Is the echo chamber of the internet - driven by flawed "recommendation systems" at the heart of the problem?
Excellent point. The Eugenics Record Office was shuttered in 1939 and eugenics ceased to be a topic of polite conversation. But the eugenic sterilizations did not cease, and I'm not sure they even slowed afterward. They simply went underground--no longer public bragging points. North Carolina had a state Board of Eugenics till 1977. Virginia's sterilization program continued till 1979. California's program continued in prisons till 2014. Serious questions have been raised about who and how Canadians are steered toward its burgeoning medical assistance in dying program. Precision genetics offers new questions.
My maternal grandfather was a serious progressive. He always told me a conservative was just a progressive who was late to the party. “Whatever progressives championed fifty years ago, conservatives champion today.”
That’s pretty much what my friend Chuck and I wrote in this article, which got a lot of attention a couple of years ago: https://www.discoursemagazine.com/politics/2020/10/19/leftward-ho/. Tell me if it sounds like your grandfather’s perception. :)