Analysis of “Idiocracy” and “Scientific Racism: The Eugenics of Social Realism”
In this unit, you are to watch the short clip of the opening of Idiocracy (2006) and the documentary “Scientific Racism: The Eugenics of Social Darwinism” produced by the BBC. After having done so, and after having watched the vodcasts and done the textbook readings for this unit (I uploaded the videos and textbook in the files below, textbook readings require pages (1-44 and 217-239)), you are to write about eugenics in popular culture today.
Using the course material (vodcasts, readings, assigned videos) as your basis, reflect on the prevalence and meaning of eugenics thought, attitudes, and assumptions in today’s news, policies, literature, and film. Is eugenics thought present today? If so, to what degree? Has it changed over time? Does it still matter?
This assignment may require you to do outside research. You can look at major news sources like nytimes.com, bbc.co.uk, latimes.com, Aljazeera.com, npr.org, nwpr.org, economist.com, pri.org. (Use the search bars on these webpages to find older news articles. Just search for a relevant term like “Eugenics.”)
