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There are two new trends of thought about the procreation of Man
about the guiding of the procreation of huge groups of humans,
which are social Darwinism and eugenics.
And these originated in the wake of
that brilliant book by Charles Darwin, 'On the origin of species',
1859..
What does Darwin present in his book - most of you know this, of course -
He exposes the motor of the evolution of species
and that motor is natural selection.
The struggle for existence, the struggle for survival.
And right at that time, when they understand how evolution functions,
many people fear - including Charles Darwin -
that the motor is being shut down - the struggle - by Civilization.
Because society sees to it that the poor are helped,
that the sick are taken care of in hospitals.
It's also a period in history - 2nd half 19th Century -
when institutions are organized for feeble-minded and the mad.
Taking measures to keep all kinds of people alive,
who would normally - in nature's cruel reality - have died.
And these people are cured, in hospitals or madhouses..
..and afterwards, they can reproduce.
Yet, at that time the laws of heredity were practically unknown,
but they had many ideas about them,
and they recognize heredity when breeding flowers, plants, and animals,
with all kinds of principles about heredity. They were aware,
that many things are hereditary.
And they fear that feeble-mindedness, poverty, and social problems might be hereditary.
However, civilization keeps all these hereditary ills alive,
because of this, the genetical whole of the people is disturbed,
polluted, and they want to purify it.
They believe two methods can be used to purify,
Social Darwinists want - the name implies it -
Darwinism applied on society,
"social Darwinism".
They want to rewind poor relief, health care, all this care...
and if possible, abolish them,
to allow nature to perform its 'purifying work'
to eradicate the incompetent, the "unfit" as they're called,
those who are not fit,
to eliminate them. That is social Darwinism.
Abolishing, or at least reducing care for the weak of society;
the handicapped, etc.
And then there's another movement - eugenics.
eugenics, simply means "good birth".
Eugenics, wishes to achieve two things,
One: Ensure that the better men, the population's fit,
procreate faster, have more children than
than the disadvantaged, the unfit,
and that the unfit - the socially disadvantaged -
..but they explain this as hereditary..
that they procreate less or not at all.
So, what do you get?
Segregation, locking them up in asylums,
all kinds of ideas - at the end of the 19th Century -
..and especially during the 20th Century,
when sterilisation of the male becomes possible,
a vasectomy, cutting through the vas deferens,
an operation which was perfected at the beginning of the 20th Century,
before that, it wasn't done,
sterilisation of men, and especially women, was life-threatening.
When vasectomy became possible, sterilisation became popular,
and you get all kinds of movements - especially in the United States -
for sterilisation - compulsive sterilisation -
for the feeble-minded, the mentally ill, etc.
Those are the two trends emmanating from the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin.
"Now we know how evolution functions,"
"that is the motor: Struggle for existence."
"We, civilized people, have corrupted that struggle,"
"Let us please re-install it," - social Darwinism.
"or let us, people, manipulate natural selection and perform artifical selection."