Margaret Sanger has become a parody
of feminism and Planned Parenthood,
"I accepted an invitation to talk
to the women's branch
of the Ku Klux Klan" from her Autobiography
We prefer the policy of immediate sterilization... p 35
"[O]rganized...charity...reveals...a defect. [Where] organized charity itself is the symptom of a malignant social disease." p. 38.
The theme of The Pivot of Civilization is summed in Margaret Sanger's fifth chapter, "The Cruelty of Charity." p.37. A "debauch of sentimentalism..." p.38.
"[S]chools for the blind, deaf and mute...our eyes should be opened to the terrific cost ...of this dead weight of human waste." p. 39.
***
The Pivot of Civilization by Margaret Sanger was published by Brentano's, New York, in 1922. The introduction was graciously provided by H. G. Wells, one of Sanger's numerous sex partners.
The Dedication is written by another lover, Havelock Ellis.
"This book['s]...central challenge is that civilization is based upon the control...of Sex." Sex is capitalized in the original. p. 1.
Later Sanger expands the challenge to "Hunger and Sex." Capitalizations in original. p.1.
Sanger gushes of "...women fired with the glorious vision of a new world...emancipated...a Utopian world,-- it glowed in romantic colors..." p. 2.
Margaret Sanger "was driven to ask whether this urging power of sex [not capitalized this time]...was not...responsible...for the widespread misery of our world." p. 3.
"...Civilization could not solve the problem of Hunger until it recognized the titanic strength of the sexual instinct." p. 3.
Sanger quotes Lecky, "The greatest of all evils in politics is power without control." p. 5.
Sanger enjoyed the endorsement of "The neo-Malthusian movement in Great Britain [who] came to our support." p. 5.
Sanger tells us that "Official moralists" are responsible for the presence of "the moron and the imbecile..." p. 6.
"The lack of balance between the birth-rate of the "unfit" and the "fit,"...the greatest present menace to civilization, can never be rectified by the inauguration of a cradle competition between these two classes. The... inferior classes, the fertility of the feeble-minded, the mentally defective, the poverty-stricken, [present the need] to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective." p. 9.
This menace demands action, "Possibly drastic and Spartan methods may be forced upon American society if it continues complacently to encourage the chance and chaotic breeding that has resulted from our stupid, cruel sentimentalism." p. 9.
This is Sanger's religion and gives us her book title-theme, "To effect the salvation of the generations of the future...[for] the formation of a code of sexual ethics...[where] we shall best be serving the pivotal interests of civilization." p. 9.
"We must temper our emotion and enthusiasm with the impersonal determination of science." p. 9. Except, perhaps, if science contradicts abortion as Cecile Richards, current president of Planned Parenthood, demands.
Margaret Sanger has an odd definition of Motherhood. It is not a calling. It is not fulfillment of womanhood. It is not joy. "Motherhood, which is not only the oldest but the most important profession...has received few of the benefits of civilization." p. 10. Indeed Sanger believes that Motherhood is little different from the other "oldest profession" as commonly understood. (See "[P]rostitution legalized by the marriage ceremony." Woman and the New Race p.112)
Sanger seemingly longs for an ancient, simpler age where, "[P]rimative tribes were rude enough and severe enough to prevent the unhealthy growth of sentimentality, and to discourage the irresponsible production of defective children...[the] results of uncontrolled breeding" p. 10-11.
Much like her modern liberal sisters, Margaret Sanger has a dark interpretation of woman and child. "One searches in vain for some picture of sacred motherhood...[where] chance parenthood [causes] the great social problems of feeble-mindedness, crime and syphilis...[birthed by] slaved-mothers " p. 12-13.
Sanger was an active supporter of the junk-science of eugenics in the early 1900's. "[T]he Galton Laboratory for Great Britain, show[ed that] an abnormally high rate of fertility is usually associated with poverty, filth, disease, feeblemindedness and a high infant mortality rate." p. 16.
Margaret Sanger does not want the government nor philanthropies nor charities to "[A]ssume the responsibility of keeping your [unplanned] babies alive....They tacitly assume that all parenthood is desirable, that all children should be born, and that infant mortality can be controlled by external aid." p.17.
Sanger sets the stage for the abortion and infanticide debate in our time, "In truth, unfortunate babies who depart [die] during their first twelve months are more fortunate in many respects than those who survive to undergo punishment for their parents' cruel ignorance and complacent fecundity [the ability to reproduce]." p. 18.
Margaret Sanger, working with the unions, wanted fewer children to keep labor wages high and to keep children out of the labor market. "[C]heap childhood is the inevitable result of chance parenthood. Child labor is organically bound up with the problem of uncontrolled breeding and the large family." p. 19.
Sanger writes of the "[P]ure American stock" uninfected by immigrant genes. p. 23.
Parents are the epitome of, "[S]inister selfishness...who bring babies into the world to become child-slaves." p. 23.
The founder of Planned Parenthood, Margaret Sanger, quotes approvingly of the National Child Labor Committee, that writes, "It is not only through the lowered power, the stunting and the moral degeneration of its individual members, but in actual expense, through the necessary provision for the human junk, created by...charitable organizations." p. 24 [Emphasis mine. Quote is attributed to the National Child Labor Committee by Sanger.]
Sanger knew that family size limitation needed the authority figures of physicians and African-American clergy to implement an incremental strategy to stop the "imbeciles" and "Negros" from having children. Here Sanger seems to advocate abortion, not merely contraception,
There is but one practical and feasible program in handling the great problem of the feeble-minded. That is, as the best authorities are agreed [medical doctors], to prevent the birth of those who would transmit imbecility to their descendants...Modern conditions of civilization...furnish the most favorable breeding-ground for the mental defective, the moron, the imbecile. p. 28
"[T]he progress of civilization and of human expression has been hindered and held back by this burden of the imbecile and the moron." p. 32.
"[T]he menace of the moron..." is harmful also because, "[T]here is a point at which philanthropy may become positively dysgenic [or cacogenics -- the study of factors producing the...perpetuation of defective... genes and traits in offspring], when charity is converted into injustice to the self-supporting citizen, into positive injury to the future of the race." p. 34
Here sums the Margaret Sanger world view and her course of action,
The emergency problem of segregation and sterilization must be face immediately. Every feeble-minded girl or woman of the hereditary type, especially of the moron class, should be segregated during the reproductive period. Otherwise, she is almost certain to bear imbecile children, who in turn are just as certain to breed other defectives...p. 35
The Sanger final solution,
[W]hen we realize that each feeble-minded person is a potential source of an endless progeny, we prefer the policy of immediate sterilization, of making sure that parenthood [planned or not] is absolutely prohibited to the feeble-minded. p. 35
"Eugenics seems to me to be valuable in its...diagnostic aspects...seeking to re-establish the dominance of the healthy strain over the unhealthy...over the unfit [retarded]" p. 36
Chapter V is entitled, "The Cruelty of Charity," p.37. Margaret Sanger begins the chapter with an approving quote from Herbert Spencer,
Fostering the good-for-nothing at the expense of the good is extreme cruelty. It is a deliberate storing up of miseries for future generations. There is no greater curse to prosperity than that of bequeathing them an increasing population of imbeciles.
"[O]rganized...charity...reveals...a defect. [Where] organized charity itself is the symptom of a malignant social disease." Margaret Sanger continues,
Those vast, complex, interrelated organizations aiming to control and to diminish the spread of misery and destitution and all the menacing evils that spring out of this sinisterly fertile soil, are the surest sign that our civilization has bred, is breeding and is perpetuating constantly increasing numbers of defectives, delinquents and dependents. My criticism, therefore, is not directed at the "failure" of philanthropy, but rather at its success. p. 38.
"These dangers...in...humanitarianism...produce their full harvest of human waste...[by] the Salvation Army [and its] debauch of sentimentalism..." p.38.
This debauchery includes, "[S]chools for the blind, deaf and mute...our eyes should be opened to the terrific cost ...of this dead weight of human waste." p. 39.
"Such "benevolence"... conceals a stupid cruelty..." p. 40.
And "The most serious charge that can be brought against modern "benevolence" is that it encourages the perpetuation of defectives, delinquents and dependents." p. 43.
"[T]oday's disorder and danger...is fundamentally a sexual problem." p. 45.
"[S]entimental charities, which sprang up like mushrooms, only tended to increase the evils of discriminant breeding." p. 46.
"Eugenic thus aims to seek out the root of our trouble...cleaning itself of inherent defects...hereditable taints...feeble-minded...breeding an ever-increasing army of under-sized, stuntedand dehumanized slaves..." p. 61.
Margaret Sanger believes that eugenics is necessary to stop, "Insanity, criminality and tuberculosis..." p. 63.
So how does Margaret Sanger want society stop this? "The...feeble-minded...should be...prevented from propagating their kind." p. 63.
Sanger tells us, "We want, most of all, genius." p. 64.
But, "Eugenics is chiefly valuable in its negative aspects." p. 65.
"Eugenics...[with] clear thinking [will provide] the means to racial health." p. 66.
"[R]ational selection must take the place of natural selection..." p. 71.
Margaret Sanger demands to stop "[T]he hypocrisy of the well-to-do, who are willing to contribute generously to charities and philosophies, who spend thousands annually in the upkeep and sustenance of the delinquent, the defective and the dependent..." p.73.
Margaret Sanger gives voice to the modern pro-abortion feminist, "Woman's power can only be expressed ...when she refuses the task of bringing unwanted children into the world..." p. 73.
Margaret Sanger provides marriage counseling, "More marriages fail from inadequate and clumsy sex love than from too much sex love." p. 75.
New Age religion is not new. Margaret Sanger is a foremother to Shirley MacLaine. We need not look to "the illusion of some extra-terrestrial Heaven." No, "The Kingdom of Heaven is in a very definite sense within us."
Sanger opens Chapter X: Science the Ally begins by quoting Robert G. Ingersoll,
"Science must make woman the owner, the mistress of herself. Science [is] the only possible savior of mankind." p. 78.
Margaret Sanger wants to, "Remove the moral taboos...[and] free the individual from the slavery of tradition." p. 82.
"Our approach opens to us a fresh scale of values... [that] frees the mind of sexual prejudice and taboo." p. 86.
Margaret Sanger says that people should all, "[A]wakened to the realization that the source of life, of happiness, is to be found not outside themselves, but within..." p. 94.
"Our great problem is... to remodel the race..." p. 95.
Margaret Sanger displays little empathy,
Every single case of inherited defect, every malformed child, every congenitally tainted human being brought into this world is of infinite importance to that poor individual; but it is of scarcely less importance to the rest of us and to all of our children who must pay in one way or another for these biological and racial mistakes. p.96.
Sanger has a spiritual mission and concludes in the same God-less, New Age religion reference as in her book Woman and the New Race, "[H]ere close at hand is our paradise...our Heavenly and our eternity...we must seek the secret of eternal life." p. 97
###
Thank you (foot)notes:
[Update] The "progressive" philosophy of Margaret Sanger continues to this day. Alert (liberal) Reader milo9 writes, "I'm delightfully surprised that you're wearing your greed on your sleeves [of requesting a donation to a non-profit]. Such honesty is rarely seen on the Right." The Sanger premise that donations to charity are a misplaced greed is a tenet of the liberal mind-set.
Link photo credit to Jill Stanek and The Truth About Margaret Sanger.
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This work of Margaret Sanger does not have a copyright. The page numbering is from The Echo Library 2006 edition, www.echo-library.com. Complete text at the jump.
Jack Cashill has an outstanding review of The Pivot of Civilization in World Net Daily.
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