Transcript Brave New World

The answer to the question
you’ve all asked at some
point in your life…
“What does literature have
to do with me?”
The Eugenics Movement
and
Brave New World
A Definition:
• Eugenics-origins in Greek roots for “good” and
“generation” or “origin”
-The study of the agencies under social
control that seek to improve or impair the
racial qualities of future generations either
physically or mentally” –Alan Stoskepf
The history:
• Eugenics was a term coined by Francis
Galton, Darwin’s half-cousin (1883)
• English Scientist
• Wanted to improve hereditary
characteristics, both physical and mental
-www.huxley.net
Galtonian ideal:
• “Positive eugenics” is a moral philosophy
to improve humanity by encouraging the
ablest and healthiest people to have more
children
– Elof Carlson, “Scientific Origins of Eugenics”
You’ve got the wrong idea…
• “Negative eugenics” advocated culling the
least able from the breeding population to
preserve humanity’s fitness.
• America, Scandinavia, and GERMANY
favored the negative approach
-Elof Carlson,
“Scientific Origins of Eugenics”
(anyone surprised????)
Characteristics:
• Eugenicists used a flawed and crude
interpretation of Gregor Mendel’s laws on
heredity to argue that criminality,
intelligence, and pauperism were passed
down in families as simple dominant or
recessive hereditary traits
-Stoskepf
In America:
• “Eugenics fed off of the fears of white
middle and upper class Americans”
• A time of rapid social and economic
change at the turn of the century
• Supporters for the movement argued for
laws to control the spread of “inferior
blood” into the general population
It really existed…
And a bit of eugenics humor…
A typical 12-step meeting for eugenicists.
American history of eugenics:
• Harry Clay Sharp, a prison physician,
believed that sexual self-satisfaction was a
sign of degeneracy, which led the prison to
carry our vasectomies on prisoners.
• This culminated in an Indiana law
mandating compulsory sterilization of
“degenerates” in 1907, the first in the U.S.
Cont…
• During WWI the American Eugenics
Society spread its news about a “fitter
family” and “better baby” at fairs and
competitions
• Awarded blue ribbons to the “Best human
stock”
Cont…
• President Coolidge embraced the
Eugenics movement, which helped to pass
the Immigration and Restriction Act of
1924.
• “America must be kept American.
Biological laws show that Nordics
deteriorate when mixed with other races.”
– Coolidge
Cont…
• In the Supreme Court, Oliver Wendell
Holmes declared forced sterilization in
Buck vs. Bell in 1927
• Other famous supporters, like Alexander
Graham Bell furthered support for the
movement
• Critics from the African American scholars
(W.E.B. Dubois, Horace Mann, Howard
Long)
And how this relates to YOU:
• In education, eugenicists were the first to
suggest standardized IQ tests to help sort
through the “good and bad” and help with
the population control according to
eugenic ideals
• “Eugenic ideology worked its way into the
educational reform movements of the
1910’s and 20’s…”
The origins of AP?
• This movement stemmed the first gifted
and talented programs in the U.S.
• Lewis Terman, Professor of Education at
Stanford University, created the StandfordBinet intelligence test (still used today) and
was an early proponent of tracking
• “Slow” students were placed into special
classes
Cont…
• Terman’s book, The Measurement of
Intelligence, states:
– “As far as intelligence in concerned, the tests have
told the truth… No amount of school instruction will
ever make them intelligent voters or capable voters in
the true sense of the word.”
– “The fact that one meets this type with such frequency
among Indians, Mexicans, and negroes suggests
quite forcibly that the whole question of racial
differences in mental traits will have to be taken up
anew and by experimental methods.”
AIMS anyone?
• Our current testing methods have their
roots in this damaging public experiment
to “rid the world” of the “lowliest of
society”, and as the Nazis in Germany
believed, Americans alike were supportive
of extermination of the unable, the inept,
the genetically “unclean”… we just didn’t
take it as far as Hitler.
Visual Aids
Brave New World:
• “BNW is often described as a society
based on eugenic principles. But this
formulation can be misleading. BNW is a
stratified genetic caste society where the
lower order are deliberately stunted both
mentally and physically… The relative
proportion of each caste is fixed by a
World Government bureau, the
Predestinators… Individuality has been
sacrificed for the good of society as a
whole…”
-Jim Regan, csmonitor.com
The Caste System
• Alpha: destined for leadership positions
• Beta: intellectually demanding jobs, less
exalted
• Gammas and Deltas: need some
intelligence in their roles
• Epsilons: happy morons capable of only
the most menial and unskilled tasks
Are you ready?
Questions?
Discussion time…
Questions on themes:
• What do you think is the impact of having AP
classes versus “on-level” classes in schools?
• Why is our society stratified (why are there
levels)? What is this saying about society in
general (not just American)?
• What purpose does “leveling” people serve to
our social agendas?
• What role does technology play in the
continuance of these social hierarchies?
• What will be the defining point(s) of the future in
regards to which class people fall into?
Economy? Politics? Popularity? Education?