Uterus For Rent

The thought experiment currently making the rounds is a year-old post in Aeon by a pair of Jewish psychologists. Howard Rachlin is Emeritus Research Professor of Psychology at Stony Brook, and Marvin Frankel is a professor of psychology at Sarah Lawrence.

Titled, If babies were randomly allocated to families would racism end? the article attempts to inform whether a drastic shuffling of babies would reduce racism and improve "social cohesion."

Just once I'd like to see a couple of Ashkenazi write an article extolling the virtues of being a segregated community, and how it can lead to selective pressures that help raise mean IQ.

One problem with this proposal is that it assumes that racism is bad. I think most people can agree that hating someone for looking different is not desirable, but racism means everything these days. Fox's Brian Kilmeade asking co-host Harris Faulkner whether she likes Kool-Aid is racist.

The word "racist" is a means of control. Noticing that certain populations have relatively low mean IQ is racist. But noticing that certain populations are superior athletes is somehow not as racist. So I dispute whether "ending racism" is even a worthwhile goal.

But let's say it is. One of the other benefits of this "social mixing,", the authors assert, "would be to generate a strong interest in the health and wellbeing of expectant mothers, which would ultimately translate into an interest in the social and biological welfare of everyone."

We already expend great energy maintaining the wellbeing of expectant mothers. That this would somehow "translate" into greater altruism is absurd - men work to provide a surplus for their families. The repeated failures of communism proves that men won't work for someone else's family.

A female, when you think about it, is merely a vehicle for bringing children into the world. So let's say my spouse is pregnant, and when she gives birth, our child is going to be taken from us and given to another family. What is my incentive to maintain my wife's health?

If my wife wants to have a few glasses of wine, I doubt I would stop her. She's still a vehicle for a child, but now she's more like a rental car. Everybody drives their rental car too hard and they don't sweat a few potholes.

There are parents who adopt children, but they know there will be things they can't control or anticipate. And what about children with disabilities?

It's like asking everybody to be a foster parent, and expecting every kid to be a foster kid, and expecting better outcomes.