Heavy Stuff

Recently, I have been reading a book by C.S. Lewis called The Abolition of Man. In it he attempts to defend traditional morality in the face of modernism, which encourages the rejection of morality in pursuit of the conquest of Nature.

Heavy stuff.

One of the topics he addresses is technology, an example of which is eugenics. Lewis contends that eugenics, prenatal conditioning and DNA testing all threaten to destroy human nature in the sense that in the future, man will create the species as he wishes (Floyd Notes). This will mean that any person who does not fit his physical or cognitive standard will be altered or aborted.

Dr. Floyd made the comment that media and science go hand-in-hand. In the future, under Lewis' theory, there would be "the Propagandist," who would convey what would then be desirable in society.

In a specific example, media can help form "socially constructed ideals of beauty" (Floyd Notes).

This connected extremely well with the idea of technological determinism, the idea that technology determines how we view reality.

It's not like the significance of electricity.

It's more like the images that are plastered on our eyeballs which show us what we ought to be like.

It's digitally-touched up women.

It's simplistic caricatures of tough men.

It's the idealized lives of the wealthy, the sexy, and the rebellious that we see over and over again in film and music.

We see these images, we hear these songs, we read these magazines, and we emulate.

We already have a Propaganda system in place for understanding what we ought to be like. We are delving further into biogenetics. I only hope that Lewis' prophecy does not come true. I hope we will never see the day when the mentally retarded, the disabled, and those with learning disorders are valued less than everyone else because the Media and Science have told us so. That day may be approaching, however. Some signs?

The death of Baby Doe.

The death of Terry Schiavo.

Babies that are aborted because they will develop a handicap.