7/22/2007

Generation aXed - a thought provoking article

The above title of an article by Cheong Suk Wai in the Sunday Times is a very interesting article to read. She started by talking about this guy, I presumed must be a man, telling her that the country or the world will be a better place without the labourers or labourer's genes. The crux of this guy's theory is that good genes produce good genes. A very familiar line of thought. Then she cheekily quoted this Prof Wald who was asked to donate his sperm to the sperm bank for Nobel Prize winners so that the world will have more good genes. And the professor's reply was that his Nobel Prize genes came from a poor tailor. His own genes only produced two guitarists. Reading the article at face value is funny and a bit of an anti climax. But read in between the lines and the messages and all its nuances come through quite clearly. And there are many messages to be discovered. This is a real treasure hunt. One of the key message can be traced from these quotes: 'Now I don't know what he made of me, but my stunned silence throughout his tirade did not mean I agreed with it.' This is very Singaporean. Many audacious things happened recently, and all we hear is silence. 'But time and tribulation have taught me that the best response to such head scratching pronouncements is to say what you know in the very pit of your gut to be right and real.' What Suk Wai was saying is that you must be polite and say nicely to him but not to offend him or make him think that he is really an idiot. So her way of replying to the guy is this: 'What would competition be like when there are only good genes to compete against other good genes?' She did not talk back or demonstrate violently. She did not tell him he was wrong. She just asked a few plain questions. Hmmm, very similar to what I have been doing all these while.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quite a long while ago, wasn't there someone who said that graduates must marry graduates to produce intelligent offsprings?

Hmmmmm..., I wonder who that was??

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

i wonder why the reticence. not interested, afraid, silent protest, scheming, given up, pissed off, contented and happy, probably all of these.

Anonymous said...

Yah, I also wonder who that was?

But labourers never had the chance to get a good education, so how can you say labourer's genes are no good. If the whole world is made up of Nobel Price Winners or such with superior genes, who is going to drive the buses, repair the houses, mend the roads? Is the world going to be better?

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

biologically the genes do carry some of the physical attributes of the owner to the next generation, like colour eyes, shape and sizes. but what passes down are physical, how strong, how heavy, not so much on the intelligence or character of the person. there will be some effects but this will be tempered by karmic forces.

this is the part that human cannot predict and has to do with karma and the person's life. the parent's karma and the newborn's karma. i don't think genes will affect much on the realm of life and karmic effects.

the american negros are a good example. they were bred like animals, for strong bones and muscles. not much of the other aspect of the white men pass through, maybe some. any negro who is smarter is likely to be his karma and the life he is to lead.

Anonymous said...

Genetics is only part of the story.

In fact, the human (free) will can overcome genetic limitations.

For e.g. it has been proven that IQ can increase and people can learn the most complex concepts if they are taught well.

Genetics does however play a part in good looks...

... but then again there is plastic surgery...