Blog 5: The “Other” and Gattaca

In the essay “The Man on the Moon” George J. Annas writes that “The new ideal human, the genetically engineered ‘superior’ human, will almost certainly come to represent ‘the other.’ If history is a guide, either the normal humans will view the ‘better’ humans as the other and seek to control or destroy them, or vice versa” (236). I believe George J. Annas is right but it seems the 'superior' human always tries to control and/or destroy normal humans. Throughout history the "superior" human has oppressed the normal humans. When Hitler and his people saw themselves 'superior' to the jewish, gay, and colored people the nazis' killed most of them. When the Spanish, Dutch, and British saw themselves 'superior' to the Africans they enslaved many African people and took control of their lifes. Even today the people with large amounts of money believe they are 'superior' to the normal people that have low amounts of money. They control us with their make believe currencies and destroy the normal humans in many ways. For example the rich people can afford healthcare and the normal humans can't even see a doctor and are left to die. The 'superior' humans have complete control of the normal humans and they try to destroy us daily. I know this because as a normal human I have turned the 'superior' humans into the "other". I am being controled everyday by the 'superior' and constantly in threat of being destroyed. When I wake up and turn on the news, they try to brainwash you with their ideology and of course it's the 'superior' human's ideology being spread out because they are the ones who own the news channels. In present time the 'superior' human doesn't control you or destroy you physically it's more mentally. A German poet named Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe once said " none are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free". In Gattaca the 'superior' humans were attacking the normal humans when they were looking for Vincent. The 'superior' humans controled the minds of the normal humans because all their life they were told they weren't good enough and the normal humans ended up believing it. Another historic example is when the conquistadors came in contact with the Native Americans. The conquistadors thought they were 'superior' humans and saw the Native Americans as the normal humans. To make a long story short the conquistadors killed, raped, and enslaved the Native Americans. In Gattaca Jerome was born a 'superior' human but becasue he lost the ability to walk he became a normal human, he couldn't deal with the change so he killed himself. In a way the 'superior' human ideology killed him because it controled his mind and he thought his life wasn't worth living because he wasn't a 'superior' human anymore. In the past there have been groups of people who think they are 'superior' to another group of people. For example the KKK thinks they are 'superior' to black, gay, hispanic, and jewish people so they go and kill people in those groups. My point is when a group of people consider themselves 'superior' to another group of humans they usually destroy them or/and control them.