Between 1934 and 1976, when the Sterilisation Act was finally repealed, 62,000 people, 90 percent of them women, were sterilised. 15-year-old teenagers were sterilised for "crimes" such as going to dance halls. One woman was sterilised in 1960 for being in a motorcycle gang. Orphans were sterilised as a condition of their release from children's homes. Others were pinpointed on the basis of local neighbourhood gossip and personal grudges. Some were targeted because of their "low intelligence", being of mixed race, being gypsies, or for physical defects.Hmmm, I knew Swedish socialism had fascist roots, but I didn't know about the eugenics. Of course, eugenics was progressive science back in the early 20'th century. I believe that Margaret Sanger spoke twice to the KKK about eugenics in the 1920's. I have also read that the text at issue in the Scopes trial promoted the practice. But I didn't know Sweden had been so deeply involved, apparently they sterilized more people per capita than any other country besides Germany.
More here.
4 comments:
I don't know what "fascism" means, though the term is thrown about very widely.
As far as I can tell, the socialist impulse and the impulse to kill all the Jews and the impulse to sterilize for the sake of eugenics and the global warming hysteria all stem from the same place: the desire to purify this imperfect world through control of other people. Whatever names people want to apply, that is the heart of the matter.
MHA,
In this case fascist means influenced by Mussolini's ideas and practice, and in Sweden's case there was also the ethnic 'volk' idea. The New Deal also had fascist elements. I don't think the term fascist is meaningless when it refers to the actual historical phenomenon.
The roots of such behaviour may be part of the universal nature of man but it is still useful to distinquish the particulars of a given incarnation of that nature.
chuck,
I don't disagree with anything you said. I don't object to the use of the word "fascist", mind you, I just want to know what the person is trying to say when they say it.
I think fascist is about being overly concerned about one's face. Or perhaps being concerned about other's faces. I am pretty sure is does not concern being two-faced, as in the case of most Baptists.
'The universal nature of man' is a sexist statement, which applied to this planet, refers to Human Nature... and as Mark Twain said: 'I don't know exactly what human nature is, but I pray to God that I never encounter it.'
Post a Comment