Column: Eugenics, George Bernard Shaw and the need for a dramatic reckoning

What is eugenics? Simply put, it’s the idea that a society can best thrive by breeding more of its stronger members than those perceived to be weak or immoral or otherwise less desirable for the common good. In Shaw’s view, as manifest in several of his plays (”Man and Superman,” for example) the best leaders are enlightened, progressive, intelligent, effective people, not those crude fools the general populace might elect.