Punpun Straussianism 3

Populism as Self-Oppression

Shin Sekai Yori 

Or From the New World

For those of you who haven’t figured it out, this very blog is named after an anime. If I were to summarize the plot of this anime, it would be “the consequences of aligning humans with even slightly more power to kill each other”. Spoiler warning again.

So, at some point in the near future a small fraction of humans here on earth gain psychic powers. The authorities genetically engineer all the non-psychic humans into these eusocial rat things with human intelligence, then genetically engineer the humans into physiologically self-destructing if they kill another human (except for psychopaths) and also constantly monitor and kill people who might have bipolar disorder (which leads to their psychic powers leaking out and hurting people around them) and also erases everyone’s memories from time to time. Even its justification for fanservice is crazy (the society genetically engineered everyone to be homosexual during specifically adolescence). 

I often call this anime “the only realistic depiction of a society with magic”. When it comes to the scale to increase the violence people do to each other, even a slight increase would be catastrophic. 

So Brian, given that you love this anime and think its one of the best portrayals of human nature in existence, why do you support genetic engineering?

Please stop talking.

But aren’t we well below the violence we could do to each other in our current society?

Please, please just stop talking.

But what if I didn’t believe in progress or demand curves? 

Well, I would have a sick book cover.