Writing a column on the not-so-subtle fascism in the evolution textbook that was part of the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tenn., was evidently like clashing a pair of cymbals near the head of a sleeping Doberman. But since Rover is awake anyway, how about a quick follow-up?
Even if casual observers in 1925 knew nothing about the horrors advocated in the book – “A Civic Biology” – the loaded phrasing of that title alone should have given someone pause. It creepily suggested a mutant, utilitarian cousin of what was supposed to be disinterested inquiry by biologists. (For comparison, see “social justice” vs. “actual justice,” “real justice” and “justice.”)
“A Civic Biology” was less interested in free and honest scientific inquiry than in bending science to achieve scary aims – and did it ever spell out those aims. Suffice it to say you wouldn’t have wanted to be Asian, Hispanic, American Indian, black, an epileptic, “feeble-minded” or in some other regard what the author, George William Hunter, deemed inferior if the eugenic principles in the textbook had worked their way into government policy.
Oh wait. They did.
“About 90 percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome diagnosis have chosen to have an abortion,” The New York Times reported in 2007.