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New at Reason: Jesse Walker on Racism, Radicalism, and Eugenics in Progressive Era Indianapolis
From our March
issue, Managing Editor Jesse Walker reviews Nathaniel Deutsch's
America's "Worst" Family, which tells the story of a 19th
century Midwestern family that was demonized by eugenicists and
glorified by radicals.
|2.16.09 @ 2:14PM|#
Many an overnight shift was spent reading Eugenics, a period academic journal, as student worker in the library. They were also obsessed with Melungeons, microencephaly (all lovingly photographed for maximum gruesome effect,) and human livestock contests at county fairs for finding "The Fittest Couple."
|2.16.09 @ 2:29PM|#
Is there any way we can somehow hit the "reset" button and make it so the whole "Progressive" Era never happened?
|2.16.09 @ 2:38PM|#
when is the "Progressive" Era finally gonna end?
When people finally realize the notion of "better" is a completely
subjective qualification.
|2.16.09 @ 2:40PM|#
When people finally realize the notion of "better" is a
completely subjective qualification.
Hmmm, maybe we need to get more people watching
Serenity... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCoo08z_f30
|2.16.09 @ 2:55PM|#
I love it when "academics" use other people to validate
themselves and their preconceived notions.
One size does not fit all.
|2.16.09 @ 2:55PM|#
Just caught Dollhouse on DVR last night. Better than I
had expected, and definitely worth another couple episodes.
I've been hoping to enjoy a Whedon project ever since I passed on
both Buffy and Firefly after only a couple
episodes. All my friends just love him so damn much. I feel left
out.
Naga Sadow|2.16.09 @ 2:59PM|#
SugarFree,
Why didn't you mention Eliza Dushku was the main character? You
could have saved yourself some typing.
|2.16.09 @ 3:14PM|#
Naga,
Plus, co-ed (the adjective, not the noun) showers (the noun, not
the verb) in the first episode!
That sentence was hard.
|2.16.09 @ 3:14PM|#
Dude, Dollhouse was pretty weak. Casting and characterization - not Whedon strong suits. No barn dances or ren-fairs so far though. ;-)
|2.16.09 @ 3:19PM|#
In 1888, a social reformer named Oscar McCulloch delivered a
speech in Buffalo titled "The Tribe of Ishmael: A Study in Social
Degradation." Indianapolis, McCulloch declared, had been infected
by a "pauper ganglion," a depraved clan that survived "by stealing,
begging, ash-gathering." In the summer, he said, "they 'gypsy,' or
travel in wagons east or west.…They have been known to live in
hollow trees on the river-bottoms or in empty houses." They also
received "almost unlimited public and private aid," which merely
"encourag[ed] them in this idle, wandering life, and in the
propagation of similarly disposed children."
ACK! Goddamned lawyers. Once they move in, they're fricking
impossible to get out. And they breed like bunnies.
|2.16.09 @ 3:31PM|#
Dollhouse was fairly meh. The premise only works if
Dushku suddenly discovers how to act.
I don't think that Whendon is bad at casting, I think he's just
attracted to naturalistic actors who are fine as long as they are
playing parts not to radically removed from themselves. He's just
painted himself into a corner with a show that requires
range.
I'll keep watching it to see if it improves, but my "drop a show"
threshold is very high considering I need an enormous amount of
entertainment to fight of insomnia boredom. I'm still watching
Smallvillle, for goodness sake.
Dollhouse also features the creepy alien chick Dichen
Lachman, the adorable Amy Acker,
and Olivia
Williams, who needs to have better lighting written into her
contract.
|2.16.09 @ 3:50PM|#
I don't think that Whendon is bad at casting, I think he's
just attracted to naturalistic actors who are fine as long as they
are playing parts not to radically removed from themselves. He's
just painted himself into a corner with a show that requires
range.
OK, I was a little strong in my comment. The casting of several
characters seemed pretty bad to me in this new show though. The
awful dialogue may have exacerbated it though. I will also admit to
being overwhelmed by involuntary eye-rolling spasms when the Echo
character started with the tough girl talk in her big girl glasses
and business lady suit ... cf. with the hokey black man character,
the awful english governess type running the dollhouse, and the
annoying dorky guy.
Hope it gets better in other words ...
Do like the creepy chick though. Now if Terminator: TSCC
would have some more Cameron episodes.
|2.16.09 @ 3:59PM|#
Hope it gets better in other words ...
Me too, but I doubt it will be given enough time. Whedon claims to
have 5 seasons mapped out. If he's playing it slow, it might be
Warren-doomed.
Although, I will have to call bad casting on Kyle Reese from
TSCC. Biehn was 28 when he did it, the new one looks like
a 7th grader who dressed like him for Halloween.
Fabian Society|2.16.09 @ 3:59PM|#
At Nuremburg trials, the Nazis stated that they had modeled their program after the American eugenic laws.
|2.16.09 @ 4:03PM|#
Although, I will have to call bad casting on Kyle Reese from
TSCC. Biehn was 28 when he did it, the new one looks like a 7th
grader who dressed like him for Halloween.
Especially with that 13 year old's facial hair. What the hell was
that!?
Hammy|2.16.09 @ 4:04PM|#
"At Nuremburg trials, the Nazis stated that they had modeled
their program after the American eugenic laws."
Their lawyers told them to say that.
|2.16.09 @ 4:13PM|#
What the hell was that!?
Rubber cement, goat hair clumps, and an oscillating fan.
|2.16.09 @ 4:28PM|#
Forced sterilization of all attorneys?
I prefer to let them die out by depriving them of their natural
habitat of excessive and convoluted laws.
Orange Line Special|2.16.09 @ 5:05PM|#
Whatever the problems with the Ishmaels, they'll never be as bad
as libertarians. I don't know why libertarians keep trying to get
into my septic tank, but they do. Don't get me wrong: the more they
take the fewer times I have to call the guy, but even so.
Meanwhile, back on topic, the progressives are still around. And,
rather than fight them, Reason helped them get into a position of
power.
|2.16.09 @ 6:26PM|#
...Radicals in the '70s and '80s often imagined the world as
a repressive total system, a place where almost any conceivable act
was complicit in a web of social control. (The most extreme
critique came from John Zerzan, an anarchist who argued that
language, numbers, and even our sense of time were part of the
totalitarian megamachine.) ...
It seems like most radical anarchists think even gravity is a
vicious tool of oppression. It's not possible for them to
distinguish between "Things which I cannot control" and "Things
which totally rule my LIFEZORS!"
It makes me think that they are/were total control freaks, which
is, what is that word...
IRONIC.
|2.16.09 @ 7:28PM|#
SugarFree | February 16, 2009, 4:28pm | #
Forced sterilization of all attorneys?
I prefer to let them die out by depriving them of their natural habitat of excessive and convoluted laws.
I kinda like the former, but the latter will do, and neither is
likely in our life times.
Mad Max|2.16.09 @ 7:38PM|#
'"At Nuremburg trials, the Nazis stated that they had modeled
their program after the American eugenic laws."
'Their lawyers told them to say that.'
The Americans eugenicists came first, the Germans took it to the
next level. Giving the American eugenicists their due, they didn't
actually go so far as to *kill* any 'lives unworthy of life.' For
that, the Germans are entitled to claim originality. One wishes the
idea or killing people with bad genes had died with the Nazi
regime.
Hammy|2.16.09 @ 7:45PM|#
"The Americans eugenicists came first, the Germans took it to
the next level. Giving the American eugenicists their due, they
didn't actually go so far as to *kill* any 'lives unworthy of
life.' For that, the Germans are entitled to claim originality. One
wishes the idea or killing people with bad genes had died with the
Nazi regime."
It was a jab at defense attorneys.
Mad Max|2.16.09 @ 8:02PM|#
'It was a jab at defense attorneys.'
Yeah, if it hadn't been for defense attorneys, that guy in Maryland
would have been convicted of first-degree murder for killing one of
the policemen who was trying to break into his home. The lacrosse
players at Duke would have been convicted of rape or sexual
assault, and they wouldn't have been allowed to tie up the court
system with technicalities like innocence.
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