Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Was having an intellectual discussion on a web article on Progressivism's Parade of horrors when I remembered an old biology text from the 1950s I have on hand.

Probably a school book that belonged to my mother or one of her sibs. It was from a time when America had been served refresher on all the wonderful things the generation of Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt wanted to do by one of the enemies we had just defeated in World War 2.

Funny how Hitler picked up on the ideas championed by the man who was instrumental in defeating and humiliating Germany and made them a cornerstone of his own ambitions for creating a master race. Of course it has always been a two way street between the intellectuals of Europe and America. In the aftermath of World War 1 our policy wonks re-exported the same garbage of the Prussian model and the Fabian Socialists imported to our shores in the previous century.

This text gives a balanced treatment of Eugenics and suggests that it is a combination of heredity and environmental determinism that makes us what we become. It may just be a case of good vs bad life choices. I always liked the way Norman Spinrad and L. Neil Smith explored what might have been if Hitler had dropped out of politics and immigrated to America or the "Federated States of Texas" and became a science fiction writer or artist.

Life choices may be even more important than either genetics or environmental determinism in the making of a person. The child born into a poor household still scraping at a primitive level of existence like the one in the illustration and as people have been doing for most of History - might have decent parents to guide him to grow up into a decent and successful human being- or succeed on his own in spite of worse circumstances. And the child from affluent suburbia with good parents and good schooling and a high IQ can still become a drug addict or the Unabomber!

As for the book ; it would certainly be something the Progs today would want to see erased from existence because they want to wash their hands of their involvement with Eugenics like they did with segregation and Jim Crow. Or some who upheld Hitler's Germany as the model for America.

I could not imagine this material would ever be allowed into a public school classroom in this age. Would probably be the next best thing to a teacher admitting he or she voted for Trump.

Grounds for termination of employment I'm sure!