The year is 1907 and the State of Indiana (don't poke fun at Indiana, it happens to be my favorite state) has just passed the Compulsory Sterilization Law which states that 'confirmed criminals', 'idiots', 'imbeciles', and 'rapists' are to be forcibly sterilized. This means that the state will sterilize criminals and mentally retarded people. The sad thing is that Indiana was a trend setter in this case (rarely happens now-a-days) and 29 other states adopted similar laws (as well as Nazi Germany). California moved into the "forefront" of eugenics as it really embraced the program (now you know why California liberals scare me quite badly) and they forcibly sterilized about 20,000 people (out of about 60,000 sterilized total in the country)(source: http://www.toolan.com/hitler/append1.html).
This is about as arrogant as a society can get, telling someone they aren't of high enough value to control their own reproductive function (not to mention being completely and totally unconstitutional). Would society be better off if certain elements were not allowed to procreate? Who knows (by what standard are we measuring 'better'? who is setting the direction of society? It's a dangerous game). But what I do know is that taking away the freedom to have your own offspring unequivocally violates someone's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And we (as citizens of the Land of the Free) let this go on openly and did little to nothing to prevent it.
Bottom line (other than the fact that Hitler used California's forced sterilization program as a framework for the Third Reich's eugenics program) is that we may think we are hot stuff because we have the most technologically advanced military or the strongest economy (or had rather), but we are just like everyone else, prone to making mistakes and missteps. So let's not get carried away and think we can't F it all up.
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