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Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ethan
From: ethan@ut-emx.UUCP (Ethan Tecumseh Vishniac)
Newsgroups: sci.misc,sci.bio,sci.research
Subject: Re: Gene Pool (not for the last time)
Summary: Who me?  A Nazi?
Keywords: psychiatry, eugenics, Nazis
Message-ID: <10558@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 16 Feb 89 15:11:36 GMT
References: <8737@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU> <1277@meccsd.MECC.MN.ORG> <10491@ut-emx.UUCP>
Distribution: usa
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Lines: 38

In  an article I wrote: (in response to the double quoted message)
> > 
> > If sick or disabled people make you uncomfortable, see a psychiatrist.
> > If Hitler had, maybe the dream of a "master race" would have saved
> > some millions of "substandard" people their fates in the gas chambers.
> 
> Alternatively, we could start a discussion on the very low success rate
> of modern psychiatry.  :-(
> 
> In any case,  Hitler did not hold a gun to the heads of millions of Germans
> and force them to murder so many innocent people.  The seductiveness
> of racist mythology to otherwise normal people seems pretty well established.

I have since received a private mail message acusing me of comparing
Nazis and third world nations, and making excuses for the Nazis.
I can't understand the first part, but maybe I should amplify my
point about the Nazis.

For the record, I think my comments can be interpreted as insulting
to modern psychiatry (but not very), but the primary point was that
the holocaust was not entirely, or even primarily, due to Hitler.
Otherwise normal people succumbed to an insane set of racist beliefs
and went out and murdered people.  The holocaust is generally considered
to be unique due to the number of victims and the allegedly civilized nature
of the German nation, but smaller incidents with disturbingly similar elements
are not uncommon in history.  To call on psychiatry to treat this problem
is a little like calling on a local fire department to snuff Mauna Loa.

Eugenics was used to rationalize many elements of the Nazi atrocities.
I think what disturbs many of us about Mr. Morimoto's comments is the
memory of this connection.
-- 
 I'm not afraid of dying     Ethan Vishniac, Dept of Astronomy, Univ. of Texas
 I just don't want to be     {charm,ut-sally,ut-emx,noao}!utastro!ethan
 there when it happens.      (arpanet) ethan@astro.AS.UTEXAS.EDU
    - Woody Allen            (bitnet) ethan%astro.as.utexas.edu@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

These must be my opinions.  Who else would bother?