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In the contemporary culture of America and Western democracies, referencing genetic factors outside of narrow medical conditions and venturing into the more expansive social realm involving character traits and life outcomes may be construed as justification for racism and a slippery slope towards eugenics and genocide.
Indeed the worst horrors of conquest, slavery, and genocide did actually appeal in some form to genetics, so these current viewpoints do have merit. It may be prudent to stay away from genetics since it has lead to terrible sources of division among different populations.
But to what extent is too much focus on and excessive weighting of the environment and “nurture” for individual achievement and life outcomes over genetics and “nature” itself also dangerous?
The impetus of this question came from my ruminating over the relationship between the individual and the role of the State while reading Ed Snowden’s latest book Permanent Record about the American surveillance State, as well as the Chinese surveillance State involving the Uyghurs in western China and the implementation of the Social Credit System among the eastern Coastal population centers…
