tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post5559750056445594407..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: Eugenics and Other Specious Biological ConstructsUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-57111272800350470252016-02-01T22:18:49.759-05:002016-02-01T22:18:49.759-05:00I've always understood (perhaps wrongly) that ...I've always understood (perhaps wrongly) that 1) eugenics had wide appeal across the political spectrum (perhaps in part due to it being largely a hypothetical - until the Nazis put it into practice) and 2) it had its roots in Malthusian pessimism.<br /><br />I also came understand (more recently) the Malthusian pessimism was actually on track to becoming a reality (as evidenced by food insecurity, etc) until the arrival of industrial nitrogen fixing process in the early 20th C.<br /><br />Cheers.Wallflyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03852136998154262919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-1311483715737115382016-02-01T19:51:26.626-05:002016-02-01T19:51:26.626-05:00So eugenics was one expression of a continuing thr...<i>So eugenics was one expression of a continuing thread in modern, “scientific” culture. You could spin it to fit with progressivism or conservatism, but its real source lies elsewhere.</i><br /><br />I suspect you have a very good point there, and one many would readily subscribe to. Unfortunately you (or anyone else, for that matter) don't suggest where that "elsewhere" is.<br /><br />And I might be mistaken for I haven't gathered the statistics, but I think if one were to dig on those details, one would discover that most of the social Darwinists and eugenicists were -- at least -- what one would call in our times "upper middle class".<br /><br />In Britain, for instance, Eton College comes up very frequently in the biographical profiles of eugenicists. The several eugenic societies in Britain seemed to have been as much a social gathering for the well off as a centre for the promotion of eugenics.Magpiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07528637318288802178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-69683835409099342492016-02-01T16:38:59.025-05:002016-02-01T16:38:59.025-05:00This whole meme by many conservatives and libertar...This whole meme by many conservatives and libertarians that progressivism equalt eugenics is getting really annoying. Yes, lots of early 20th century progressives supported eugneics, befoe Hitler completely made such support super politically unacceptable. But as you note, Peter, this was far from a one-tone mapping, with some progresives not supporting it and some conservatives supporting it. The current meme is getting louder, but it is fundamentally flawed.<br /><br />What is more annoying is that the meme is reappearing, although without the label of "eugenics," with lots of studies coming out about relations between IQ and economic success across and within nations. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of these are coming out of conservatives and libertarians, but let us not dare tar any of them with that label "eugenics," which is just for bad progressives, even ones now who must pay for all the sins of past progressives.rosserjb@jmu.eduhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09300046915843554101noreply@blogger.com