'Eugenics and Other Evils ' Summary

In his political essay, Eugenics and Other Evils, G.K. Chesterton weighs in on this debate, with his usual wit. In his time, eugenics mainly translated into controlling marriages (say, pairing Melania Trump with Slavoj Žižek and hoping to get tall blond children with exceptional talking abilities — or forbidding them to pair lest they beget nincompoop and twitch-riddled gnomes with a lisp instead!). Indeed, it seems the British MPs of the time were considering in earnest the possibility to translate such a project into law. But in Chesterton’s view, the aim of the people who vindicate eugenics “is to prevent any person whom these propagandists do not happen to think intelligent from having any wife or children. Every tramp who is sulky, every labourer who is shy, every rustic who is eccentric, can quite easily be brought under such conditions as were designed for homicidal maniacs” (p. 10). A eugenics regulation would have opened the door to all sorts of abuse and segregation against the disadvantaged, the ill, the disabled or simply anyone who opposed or didn’t fall into the normative categories defined by a ruling elite. Eugenics is a way to “nip in the bud” all forms of humanity that do not comply with the standard values, and breed a herd of regimented and docile human cattle.