What’s Wrong with Perfect?

I recently watched a program on the history of the eugenics program in the U.S. The tagline at the opening of the documentary was “What’s wrong with perfect?” It showed how people believed that science could solve all of society’s problems. It was an era of rapid change, and optimism that through those changes utopia was just around the corner.

Genetics was a new field. Scientists had made breakthrough gene studies in peas and flies. And some started to see that genes operated similarly in humans; traits could be traced through lineages. With this limited, yet groundbreaking, information came the idea that society should promote the passing of “good” genes and suppress the passing of “bad” ones. But what was good or bad? And what traits were genetically inherited? The biases of the day stepped in to answer those questions: white, Anglo-Saxon, wealthy, sober, intelligent, healthy people were ideal. Non-whites, including Eastern and Southern Europeans, the poor, the drunken, the feeble-minded, the sick or disabled, were all not ideal. Eugenics sought to breed out the genes for social ills such as poverty, addiction, violence, and promiscuity. It didn’t take much to get someone label “feebled-minded” and thus deemed unfit for parenthood.

Programs promoted eugenics and the improvement of American society. People would submit themselves to inspections to certify their good genes. “Better babies, happy families,” the programs promoted. This was about health, individual health and social health. We could use modern science to make people better. Who wouldn’t want healthier babies?

The problem is that hope and promises of solutions masked fear and hate. The neutral science was co-opted for a sinister agenda. We can make society better, by getting rid of them. Those foreigners, those drunks, those poor, dumb people. Eugenics quickly moved from breeding “good” genes to stopping the breeding of “bad” genes to forcibly sterilizing anyone who might pass on “bad” genes. A generational step away from genocide. The Germans admired the U.S.’s ideas of genetic superiority, and it led to actual genocide.

The promise of utopia often leads to disaster. In an effort to be perfect, a society will destroy anyone with flaws or faults. And of course, we are all flawed. People forget that the world is not perfect, and while we can strive to better it, earth will never be utopia. Utopia means “no place.” The “good place” is “no place.” It is not here. It is not coming.

Utopia will not come once all the feeble-minded are sterilized.

Utopia will not come once all the Jews are exterminated.

Utopia will not come once all the drug-users are imprisoned.

Utopia will not come once all the children with Down syndrome are aborted.

I am a flawed person. And thus, I am unfit for a perfect society. Each of us, ultimately, would be found deficient—physically, mentally, morally, philosophically—for inclusion in utopia. Once you weed out imperfect people, there is no one left. Utopia is “no place.” Only God is perfect. And while we strive to perfect ourselves, He meets where we are—in our crippling flaws and sinful faults and messy imperfections.