The recent news report of some fashion models offering their reproductive eggs to the highest bidder reminded me of an anecdote generally attributed to George Bernard Shaw. As it’s recounted, he was approached at a social gathering by an attractive young actress, who proposed a union that would produce extraordinary children, given her beauty and his brains. In declining, Shaw speculated about the result if it went the other way around. Of course he was not talking about intelligence as measured by reading, writing and arithmetic but social intelligence, appropriateness of behavior, morals and ethics.
It is ironic that our technological revolutions have given us so many mediums through which to act, either with thought and consideration, or without. Hammers can be used to pound nails or people.
Such a choice is one reason we still put Shakespeare and 2,000-year-old Greek plays on the stage. Their issues persist as ours. If Shaw were around to read the news about the models, I suspect he’d be both amused and dismayed to see how much we’ve “progressed” and how little we’ve learned.
