30 Chapter 2
Theagendaof government-regulatedeugenics,whichsomemoderncommentators
havechristenedscientificracism,^29 statedthatfreewilldoesnot exist.Alongthatline,
scientificracismproposedthata person’s DNAlargelypredetermineshis personality
traitsandactions,includinghis moralcharacter.Likewise,it arguedthatsomelineages
are betterthanothers.Thisbeliefimpliesthe inherentsuperiorityof someethnicblood-
linesoverothers.Thispromptedmembersof the governisteugenicsmovementto pro-
claimthe justnessof the vastconquestof othersocietiesby Europeanpowersandthe
UnitedStates.Consequentlythe state-decreedeugenicsmovementcalledfor America’s
federalgovernmentto restrictthe influxof immigrants.Thisis purportedlybecausenew-
comersfromEasternEurope,SouthernEurope,andAsiaweregeneticallyinferiorto
native-bornAmericansdescendedfromAnglo-SaxonProtestants.^30 Thedogmaalsora-
tionalizedthe practiceof U.S.statescoercivelysterilizingpersonswhenit wasdiscovered
thatmentalillnessran in thesepeople’s families.Thissterilizationwasto precludethe
mentallyill frompassingon conditionssuchas bipolardisorderandepilepsy.^31 As is
widelyknownin the socialsciencesfield,government-implementedeugenicswasconsis-
tentlypraised,preached,and praticedunderthe Naziregime.Thisconsiderationshould
evincethat membersof the government-pushedeugenicsmovementwereavowedoppo-
nentsof the nightwatchmanstate.Oneof the leadersof the early-twentieth-century
eugenicsmovement,^32 for instance,wasthe trailblazingstatisticianandself-described
“socialist”^33 KarlPearson(1857–1936).Universityof WisconsinhistorianGeorgeL. Mosse
writesthatPearson’s brandof socialismwas“opposedto individualismandthe undue
concentrationof wealth.” And“Pearsonwas not aloneamongracialbiologistsin advocat-
ing this kindof socialism.”^34
Ignoringthosepoints,variousscholarspersistin drawinga link betweenSpencerand
governisteugenics.Theypreferto convincetheirstudentsand readersof capitalism’s evil
by arguingthatlaissez-faireideologyis the springboardfor racistgenocideà la the Na-
zis’. In thattradition,the atheistwebsiteNoBeliefs.ComproclaimsthatAdolfHitlerdid
“at timesexpressideas...fromHerbertSpencer’s conceptof SocialDarwinism... Spen-
cer’s SocialDarwinismtriedto connectDarwin’s biologicaltheorywiththe fieldof social
relations.The resultof SocialDarwinismresultedin manyeugenicsprogramsthatbegan
in Americaandwereadoptedby the Nazis.”^35 As far as NoBeliefs.Comis concerned,to
agreewithSpencer’s socialtheoriesis to be a proto-Nazi.
Thepersonwhostartedthe ideologyof eugenics,whichwaspreviouslyknownas
stiripculture,^36 wasnot Spencerbut Sir FrancisGalton(1822–1911).^37 Onecannotfindany
so-calledsocialDarwinistdefiningsocialDarwinism,but one can findSir Francis’s intro-
ductionof the wordeugenicsin his 1883tractInquiriesIntoHumanFaculty.^38 Sir Francis
wrote,“We greatlywanta briefwordto expressthe scienceof improving” humangenetic
“stock... Thewordeugenicswouldsufficientlyexpressthe idea”^39 (italicsGalton’s). In
1908 he furtherclarifiedthat the “firstobject” of eugenics“is to checkthe birthrate of the
unfitinsteadof allowingthemto comeintobeing.... the secondobjectis the improve-
mentof the raceby furtheringthe productivityof the fit by earlymarriagesandthe
healthfulrearingof children.”^40 DespiteGaltonhavingcoinedthe expressionin 1883,he
deliveredeugenicargumentsmuchearlier,in a seriesof articlesthathe wouldpublishin
1869 as the bookHereditaryGenius.^41 Governisteugenics,Galtonexplained,wasa state
policyintending“to replacenaturalselectionby otherprocessesthatare moremerciful
and not less effective.”^42 Notethatchoiceof wording.Whereasfree-marketeconomicsis
identifiedwithnaturalselection,Galtonproposeseugenicsas a means“toreplacenatural
selection” (emphasisadded).Thisservesas an earlyindicationof the eugenicsmove-
ment’s oppositionto HerbertSpencer’s decentralized,complex-adaptive-systemeconom-
ics.