Educated people are required to believe certain things in our current society. They don’t really. One thing they pretend to believe is Darwinian evolution.
A dozen years ago James Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA, was hounded out of respectable circles for some bald statements which were not PL. This year he was raked over the coals again for what he said all those years ago. James Watson is over ninety. The blacklist was effective enough that he had to sell his Nobel Prize.
Let me paraphrase Watson’s evil comments:
Isolated groups around the planet evolved to fit in local niches.
The evolved to different hair, pigmentation, size, sexual dimorphism….
Of course they evolved to different intelligences as well.
For this Watson was called evil. The funny part is that those who don’t believe as Watson did and claim to believe in evolution actually believe in creationism. In order to believe that separated groups would evolve to identical states, one must believe in a mystical force directing evolution to a consensus norm. One must also believe that the norm to which were are directed is sub optimal.
Were we to, say, evolve to constantly greater intelligence, those who breed at an earlier age would evolve faster. Unless that mysterious force is causing greater leaps per generation in the later breeders. This is an Evolution from the nose down only. I feel as if I am among medieval superstitions I once read about in school.
Schools treat evolution as something of a litmus test for intelligence. The same schools don’t describe how a society which took it seriously would appear.
Real evolution is not about fashion, or fairness, or justice. Evolution is about children and survival.
Were we to live in a society which took evolution seriously, things would look much different. And those who claim we must all accept Darwinian Evolution would be unhappy. Let us consider sex. Society would be about having healthy children and eliminating the unhealthy ones. A line would be drawn between sex, which is needed and desirable, and fetish, which is counter survival.
Homosexuality as practiced by Plato or Oscar Wilde would be unnoticed. Homosexuality in the manner of Stephen Fry would be a reviled fetish which produces nothing and yet demands resources and respect which could help those who are having babies. Modern homosexuality would be a fetish to be derided in precisely the same manner as celibate priests and maiden aunts. Transvestites would be unremarkable. Transsexualism would be a mental disease of the first order. Right up there with self-castration and not wanting children.
Putting off children until one’s thirties would be risky behavior. Abortion would be evil or required depending on the individual case. And the mother’s wishes would be less than the interest of the genome. Note, someone will claim to speak for the genome. In some societies, that would be a real power.
Those with genetic diseases which don’t manifest themselves until after childbearing years would be viewed as threats and subject to social control. So would their children. Their elimination would be demanded. Expect occasional mass hysteria. Medieval rumors of poisoning wells is nothing beside poisoning bloodlines.
The childless would be regarded as dead weight. Something is wrong about them. Medicine would involve finding which conditions were genetic, so they could be shunned. The activist people would be all about removing harmful genes. It would be regrettable but unavoidable that removing genes requires some rather draconian actions to people. Cull is an ugly word to me, but an essential word for such a society.
Speciation would be an ongoing debate. At what point does your clade seek to cut itself off from those who have a different view of human progress. Do not expect rationality about what constitutes progress. Are we breeding for longevity, or intelligence, or physical prowess. Or something which we do not imagine. One can not breed for all traits at the same time.
Of course there would be good things. Gifted children would be encouraged in a way not seen today. Society would encourage and support healthy sex and childbirth. Unexpected pregnancy would not be a life threatening tragedy. Falling in love with a person of a different ethnic group would be seen as a good which reduces inbreeding.
A civilization which took evolution seriously wold look quite alien. And it would not look palatable to those whose interests favor economic Marxism or ethics. Of course Darwinian evolution seems to be true. Although it will change as we learn more of the genetic mechanisms. Cut that Gordian knot.