a whole slew of politcally incorrect things

so im writing a paper on the problems of modernity. that term includes things like over-industrialization and environmental degradation, but the assumptions that feed those problems are the same assumptions that feed issues like women's rights and that people on the street shouldn't starve.

so anyway, i was reading up on eugenics, which was the science of racial purification. based on Darwin's discussion of evolution, scientists decided it would be really cool if we could breed out all the bad qualities in the human race and become a better, more moral, more productive race in the process. this line of thought, of course, led to the holocaust (among other things) and all SORTS of human rights atrocities. after all, what qualities do we breed out? dark skin (CLEARLY a problem!)? "feeble-mindedness"? promiscuity? all these things were targeted at one time or another, including in the US who embraced and funded eugenics programs at many of its universities.

what i was really shocked to read about was THIS (no wonder my grampa's a racist):

"In the USA, eugenics was taught in college and high school classrooms. Supporters included Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood of America to urge the legalization of contraception for the lower classes. In its time eugenics was touted by some as scientific and progressive, the natural application of knowledge about breeding to the arena of human life. Before the realization of death camps in World War II, the idea that eugenics would lead to genocide was not taken seriously by the average American, though Sanger's books and letters clearly outlined these ultimate social-engineering goals to include selective contraception, forced sterilization, and even forced euthanasia on "the feeble minded" or "ignorant". If the government was not about to force such measures on women, Sanger believed it was her duty to provide these options to the 'lesser' of society in an effort to stay off their cycle of breeding ignorance."

really makes me think twice about my whole stance on abortion and women's rights. what if lots of free contraception is not actually the way to free poor people from the burden of children, but to free rich people from having to think about them, and maybe in a few generations from worrying about them at all??

we moderns think we can fix everything with science but hoo boy. sometimes those assumptions just lead straight to auschwitz. and then what do you do in a society that makes no provision for morality beyond what can be scientifically proven?