home
>
factoids
> political correctness
Political correctness
, in the extreme versions worth of
the name, is antithetical to almost all surprising advances in
thought. We might call it
eumemics
, since it is,
like the extreme
eugenics
of the Social Darwinists, an
attempt to impose myopically derived standards of safety and
goodness on the bounty of nature. Few today -- but there are a few
-- would brand
all
genetic counseling, all genetic policies,
with the condemnatory title of eugenics. We should reserve that term
of criticism for the greedy and peremptory policies, the extremist
policies. ... We will consider how we might wisely patrol the
memosphere, and what we might do to protect ourselves from the truly
dangerous ideas, but we should keep the bad example of eugenics
firmly in mind when we do so.
Darwin's
Dangerous Idea