We can trust him!

Rigorous research into genetic inheritance would be well worth undertaking but our "liberal" intelligensia would scream like stuck pigs if anyone proposed a programme. Politically correct people say that if the unemployment rate is higher among people of (A particular -ed) ethnicity, there must be discrimination against them. How do they know? Have they undertaken research into the mean and distribution of intelligence (e.g. as measured by IQ or aptitude tests) of the UK's indiginous people and those of people of (the selected ethnicity-ed)? Of course not. So their assertion of evidence of discriminatrion has no scientific basis.

There is at least one area in which social Darwinism would be welcome and that it the treatment of old age. The great virtue of human beings is their ability to reason. Once dementia sets in, what is the point of life? We need to get the medical profession under control. Once a person is known to be in the grip of dementia, even in its early stages, physical ailments should be left untreated by the NHS except for relief of symptoms. By all means slow down the progress of the dementia if that is possible.

You don't need to be a Nazi to practice benign neglect.

The Eugenics legislation with forced sterilisation passed by the Nazis as part of the T-4 Program was rescinded in the Soviet Occupation Zone but retained in the US and British Zones.

As for "Science" – are we talking about that Certainty that the Ptolemaic View gave us or the Uncertainty that Galileo and Copernicus introduced ?

And thanks for the recommendation for the Roughgarden book, going on my wish list right away.

It is a very strange sort of "consensus" which can only produce 1 member not paid to be there.

It is also clearly dishonest of politicians who have ensured this "consensus" purely by paying for it, to now claim they were only following it.

Religions as memes tend to adapt to survive. Although there are still Flat-earthers and Creationists, for the most part Christianity is at ease with the ideas of Galileo and Darwin. What is also interesting is the observation of Prof AJ Toynbee (yes, Polly's grandfather) on the process of the demise of civilizations.

(Summary from Wikipedia)
He argues that the ultimate sign a civilization has broken down is when the dominant minority forms a "universal state", which stifles political creativity. He states:

"First the Dominant Minority attempts to hold by force—against all right and reason—a position of inherited privilege which it has ceased to merit; and then the Proletariat repays injustice with resentment, fear with hate, and violence with violence when it executes its acts of secession. Yet the whole movement ends in positive acts of creation—and this on the part of all the actors in the tragedy of disintegration. The Dominant Minority creates a universal state, the Internal Proletariat a universal church, and the External Proletariat a bevy of barbarian war-bands."

He argues that, as civilizations decay, they form an "Internal Proletariat" and an "External Proletariat." The internal proletariat is held in subjugation by the dominant minority inside the civilization, and grows bitter; the external proletariat exists outside the civilization in poverty and chaos, and grows envious. He argues that as civilizations decay, there is a "schism in the body social," whereby:

* abandon and self-control together replace creativity, and
* truancy and martyrdom together replace discipleship by the creative minority.

He argues that in this environment, people resort to archaism (idealization of the past), futurism (idealization of the future), detachment (removal of oneself from the realities of a decaying world), and transcendence (meeting the challenges of the decaying civilization with new insight, as a Prophet). He argues that those who Transcend during a period of social decay give birth to a new Church with new and stronger spiritual insights, around which a subsequent civilization may begin to form after the old has died.

Toynbee's use of the word 'church' refers to the collective spiritual bond of a common worship, or the same unity found in some kind of social order.

Do you recognise any of these features in the society you see around you?

OAP's not being able to vote !!!!!!!

Are you suggesting that they have no say in:

Being taxed on their income on savings, tax on their income from Pension, money they spend on goods and services in the form of VAT, Council Tax.

The age limitations on being treated by the NHS, the post code lottery on Drugs, etc etc.

Now if you said Prisoners should not be able to vote, then I may agree.

If you said only UK Nationals should be able to vote, I may agree.