By Brannon S. Howse
Eugenics is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “a science that deals with the improvement (as by control of human mating) of hereditary qualities of a race or breed.” Additional words for eugenics would also be population control and sustainable development. Before I give you a brief history of the facts surrounding America exporting eugenics to Adolf Hitler, let me share with you how America has created a new kind of eugenics. New York Times best-selling author Edwin Black calls it “Newgenics.”
In a September 25, 2013 interview with Salt Lake City Weekly, Black was asked what eugenics looks like in today’s world. His answer is very revealing:
[quote] Today, we will see the advent of Newgenics. And it will no longer be about national flags and racial dogma. It will be about corporate worth, and whether or not the corporate powers believe your existence is profitable. In the same way that IBM created the information age for Adolf Hitler, it has now been created for the disciples of big data. Everything we do and see and think and experience is slowly being captured.
There is something called the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act; I was instrumental in getting it passed. It’s designed to avoid what they call a genetic ghetto, where people will not be able to get employment, insurance, health care and even an education based on their genetic legacy. This legislation was finally passed over the objections of the insurance industry. Because if people can disqualify you for insurance and employment based on your genetics—not disqualify you based on your individual merit and value and worth, but by judging your ancestors and by using a bigoted and biased measuring stick—then there’s very little hope for society. [end quote]
Mr. Black is rightfully concerned about genetics discrimination and individuals being denied the ability “to get employment, insurance, health care and even an education based on their genetic legacy.” But what if the coming Religious Reich is going to deny employment, insurance, health care, and even an education based on a person’s worldview?
Since my first book in 1995, I have been warning about such programs as “school-to-work.” The great American “hero” of public education, John Dewey—along with other “greats” like Karl Marx, Aldous Huxley, B. F. Skinner, and Benjamin Bloom—promoted the idea that a student’s academic achievement matters only if it in some way benefits the state. Before a student’s learning can be put to use for the good of all, of course, his or her attitudes, values, feelings, and beliefs must be conformed to what the state wants. In his book, My Pedagogic Creed, Dewey proclaimed:
[quote] I believe that the school is primarily a social institution.…The teacher’s business is simply to determine, on the basis of the larger experience and riper wisdom, how the discipline of life shall come to the child.… All these questions of the grading of the child and his promotion should be determined by reference to the same standard. Examinations are of use only so far as they test the child’s fitness for social life. [end quote]
In other words, the goal of school is to determine where students fit in the social and economic hierarchy—the modernist version of a caste system. Sound crazy? Well, it is, but that hasn’t stopped our left-leaning officials from putting as much of the concept to work as possible.
Many of today’s educational goals revolve around determining how a child’s attitudes, values, and feelings line up with the state’s preferences. As far back as 1997, Governor Roy Romer of Colorado, while serving as a board member of the Goals 2000 panel, was asked how to enforce national standards. Romer replied:
[quote] I believe if you were to get all employers of this country saying that we would not hire anybody unless we see a high school graduate certificate that has on it the results of this potential employee’s record.…Then I think this nation will come to the realization that there is no job for them, there is no life for them.…There is the motivation. [end quote]
Chester Finn, former assistant secretary of education and one of the authors of federal education plans, has recommended a system of rewards and punishments based on federal government standards:
[quote] Perhaps the best way to enforce this standard is to confer valuable benefits and privileges on people who meet it, and to withhold them from those who do not. Work permits, good jobs and college admission are the most obvious, but there is ample scope here for imagination in devising carrots and sticks. Drivers licenses could be deferred, so could eligibility for professional athletic teams. The minimum wage paid to those who earn their certificates [of mastery] might be a dollar higher. [end quote]
In a truly scary adaptation of the plan, some states are quickly moving to a smart-card version of the certificate, and many others are looking to follow their lead. On May 23rd, 1996, The Cincinnati Post reported:
[quote] Adults have credit cards and money cards. But soon, students in Cincinnati public schools will have a special card of their own and what it could buy them is their future in the world of work. The “smart card,” proposed by Procter & Gamble Chairman John Pepper, is expected to be in the hands of ninth-graders, and possibly seventh-graders, by the start of the next school year. Equipped with a computer chip, the card will contain a cumulative record of the student’s grades, attendance, proficiency, test scores, extra-curricular activities, athletics and other accomplishments. By the time the student graduates, the card should contain all the pertinent information a prospective employer needs about the applicant. All employers would ask to see the Smart Card and preference would be given to those with good performance. [end quote]
If the “Big Brother” implications of that idea don’t alarm you, then let me spell it out. Examine what might be considered “good performance” in the eyes of the state: the standards could be tied to how politically correct your thinking is. And if the idea of a scholastic smart card sounds familiar, you may have seen a report in the March 16, 1992, New York Times International which explained a sinister-sounding plan in China, the world’s role-model for denial of personal liberties:
[quote] [A] file is opened on each urban citizen when he or she enters elementary school and it shadows the person throughout life, moving on to high school, college, employer.…The dangan contains political evaluations that affect career prospects.…The file is kept by one’s employer. The dangan affects promotions and job opportunities.…Any prospective employer is supposed to examine an applicant’s dangan before making hiring decisions. [end quote]
In other words, those who do not agree with the State’s worldview or “standards” will not be encouraged (or should I say, allowed?) to pursue positions of power or influence—either socially or economically. Lest you think “it can’t happen here,” let me convince you otherwise.
In Las Vegas, student Darcy Tucker was pulled out of a geography class—without parental consent—to be given a computerized assessment of career possibilities. Although she aspires to become a veterinarian, the computer said Darcy ought to be a bartender or waitress, and it spat out a list of courses she should take to that end. Darcy’s mother said, “The school stepped on my toes as a parent. It is my job to direct my child’s career path, and it would not be in her best interest to be a bartender.” But from the state’s point of view, here’s the catch: Regardless of Darcy’s interests, it just might be in Nevada’s best interest, given the insatiable hospitality needs of the gambling and entertainment industry.
Many years ago I testified before the Kansas state senate along with Rene Tucker, Darcy’s mother. An economist from Hillsdale College joined us to urge Kansas not to implement “school-to-work” in that state. But the anticipated tidal wave of federal funds was too much for the state of Kansas to resist, and on behalf of its people, the state legislature rejected common sense and freedom to imbibe the failed economic policies of communism.
In his classic book, Brave New World, Aldous Huxley wrote:
[quote] To bring about the revolution we require…Enabling government managers to assign any given individual to his or her proper place in the social and economic hierarchy. Round pegs in square holes tend to have dangerous thoughts about the social system and to infect others with their discontents. [end quote]
Huxley’s point is that those who do not agree with the state’s worldview (“standards”) will not be allowed to pursue positions of power or influence, either socially or economically. And this sort of standards testing is now in progress. Among 100 true/false questions included in a career exploration test used in six states are these:
• I have taught a Sunday school class or otherwise take an active part in my church;
• I believe in a God who answers prayers;
• I pray to God about my problems;
• I read the Bible or other religious writings regularly;
• I believe in life after death;
• I believe that God created man in His own image;
• If I ask God for forgiveness, my sins are forgiven.
While it could be argued that such questions help determine a student’s fitness for a career in Christian ministry, it does not take much imagination to see how they could be equally well used to screen someone out of certain occupations in the name of finding the “proper place” for each student. You see what I mean when I say “school-to-work” programs is a form of eugenics among the living?
Copyright 2015 ©Brannon Howse. This content is for Situation Room members and is not to be duplicated in any form or uploaded to other websites without the express written permission of Brannon Howse or his legally authorized representative.
