Eugenics and Other EvilsChesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
Philosophy
Eugenics and Other Evils
Chesterton, G. K. (Gilbert Keith)
Eugenics
Now the same anarchic mystery that clings round the phrase, "_il
pleut_," clings round the phrase, "_il faut_." In English it is
generally represented by the passive mood in grammar, and the
Eugenists and their like deal especially in it; they are as passive in
their statements as they are active in their experiments. Their
sentences always enter tail first, and have no subject, like animals
without heads. It is never "the doctor should cut off this leg" or
"the policeman should collar that man." It is always "Such limbs
should be amputated," or "Such men should be under restraint." Hamlet
said, "I should have fatted all the region kites with this slave's
offal." The Eugenist would say, "The region kites should, if possible,
be fattened; and the offal of this slave is available for the dietetic
experiment." Lady Macbeth said, "Give me the daggers; I'll let his
bowels out." The Eugenist would say, "In such cases the bowels should,
etc." Do not blame me for the repulsiveness of the comparisons. I have
searched English literature for the most decent parallels to Eugenist
language.
The formless god that broods over the East is called "Om." The
formless god who has begun to brood over the West is called "On." But
here we must make a distinction. The impersonal word _on_ is French,
and the French have a right to use it, because they are a democracy.
And when a Frenchman says "one" he does not mean himself, but the
normal citizen. He does not mean merely "one," but one and all. "_On
n'a que sa parole_" does not mean "_Noblesse oblige_," or "I am the
Duke of Billingsgate and must keep my word." It means: "One has a
sense of honour as one has a backbone: every man, rich or poor, should
feel honourable"; and this, whether possible or no, is the purest
ambition of the republic. But when the Eugenists say, "Conditions
must be altered" or "Ancestry should be investigated," or what not, it
seems clear that they do not mean that the democracy must do it,
whatever else they may mean. They do not mean that any man not
evidently mad may be trusted with these tests and re-arrangements, as
the French democratic system trusts such a man with a vote or a farm
or the control of a family. That would mean that Jones and Brown,
being both ordinary men, would set about arranging each other's
marriages. And this state of affairs would seem a little elaborate,
and it might occur even to the Eugenic mind that if Jones and Brown
are quite capable of arranging each other's marriages, it is just
possible that they might be capable of arranging their own.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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