On Sat, 05 Feb 2000 15:07:12 -0600 Ken Hanly <khanly at mb.sympatico.ca>
writes:
> Just a few disconnected remarks:
>
> 1) Was Emma Goldman really a eugenecist? I would think that this is
> quite
> inconsistent with anarchism. Or was this some sort of voluntary
> selection
> process?
I don't know if Goldman was a eugenicist but certainly a great many people on the left early in the 20th century were including not only the Fabians mentioned by Murray but also Marxists including Leon Trotsky. Also, the American geneticist H.J. Muller (the discoverer of the role of ionizing radiation in causing mutation) was both a Communist and a leading eugencist. He lived for some years in the Soviet Union where attempted to get Stalin to back his eugenics proposals. And in the UK the British geneticist JBS Haldane who was a longtime Communist was also as I recall supportive of eugenics.
> 2) Murray's article seems to be singlularly lacking in any hard
> scientific
> data to support his musings.
Indeed! I also like the part where Murray wrote:
" "webwork of causal explanation" that brings human behavior within the
realm of rigorous investigation previously reserved for physical
phenomena. And not just individual behavior. "The explanatory network
now touches on the edge of culture itself," in Wilson's words-"
One might of thought that Murray would have had more to say about the implications of bringing human behavior into the framework of causal explanation since that would seem to undermine many traditional notions concerning human freedom and responsibility that are dear to conservatives.
> 3) Murray fails to note that one of the things that is evident re
> control
> of qualities of fetuses is the ability to detect whether the fetus
> is male
> or female. In many cases this leads to the deliberate abortion of
> female
> fetuses.
One might think that an article appearing in National Review he would have noted this and of the alleged moral dillemas. Perhaps, Murray agrees with our Carrol and our Yoshie that abortion is not a moral question as such.
> 4) What are alleles?
Alleles are the alternative forms of the same gene. Thus the genes for red flowes and white flowers are said to be alleles of each other. In many plant species the gene for plant size occurs in two allelic forms so there is an allele for tallness and one for dwarfness.
> 5) Actually I found this an intersting piece in spite of myriad
> faults
> and misinterpretation of competing positions, such as assuming the
> left
> thinks that all
> inequalities in individuals are the result of social, economic, etc.
> factors rather than inherent. But surely this is nonsense. Indeed,
> Rawls
> system of justice is based upon the assumption that abilities are
> inherent
> but of course contingent and therefore no person deserves any
> special
> consideration in distribution just because they happen to have these
> abilities.
Likewise, Marx's assertion in his *Critique of the Gotha Program* concerning that as communism progresses the operating distribution principle will come to be one of "from each according to his ability to each according to his needs" presupposes that individuals are ddiferent from one another both in terms of abilities and in terms of needs.
Jim Farmelant
> Cheers, Ken Hanly
> Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> > National Review - January 24, 2000
>
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