Arnold Kling opens Fight Socienics with a simple point that eludes a shocking number of people:
“What is wrong with eugenics is not the science, but the coercion. Eugenics is like any other programme that puts the social benefit before individual rights…Karl Pearson once said…’What is social is right, and there is no definition of right beyond that.’ That dreadful statement should be the epitaph of eugenics.”
— Matt Ridley, Genome
He then coins the akward term, socienics:
We have a healthy inclination to reject government-imposed eugenics. We need to develop an equivalent inclination to reject government regulation and spending of all kinds.In its recent Kelo decision, the U.S. Supreme Court gave its approval to what might be called “Socienics,” in that it put the social benefit before individual rights. When the government of the city of New London claimed that it had a higher social purpose for Mrs. Kelo’s property, the majority believed that the opinion of the government officials was beyond question. In effect, the Court ruled that “there is no definition of right beyond that.”