100 TABOO AND GENETICS 



Even if we are able to utilize this method of 

 control, it will not obtain the requisite number 

 of offspring to maintain the eugenic quality of 

 the group, since the bearing of one or two child- 

 ren would be all that individual development 

 would require. If the group must have on the 

 average three children from each of its women 

 in order to replace itself, the larger part of the 

 reproductive activities will still be confined to 

 the more ignorant, or if they also make use of 

 contraceptive knowledge, the group will simply 

 die out from the effects of its own democratic 

 enlightenment. Thus it becomes apparent that 

 we must find some more potent force than this 

 narrow form of self-interest to accomphsh the 

 social purposes of reproduction. When repro- 

 duction is generally understood to be as thor- 

 oughly a matter of group survival as for example 

 the defensive side in a war of extermination, the 

 same sentiment of group loyalty which now 

 takes such forms as patriotism can be appealed 

 to. If the human race is unsocial it will perish 

 anyway. If it has not become unsocial — and it 

 does not display any such tendency, but only 

 the use of such impulses in mistaken directions 

 — then a group necessity like reproduction can i 

 be met. Whatever is required of the individual 

 will become " moral " and " patriotic " — i.e., it 

 will be wreathed in the imperishable sentiments 

 which group themselves around socially neces- 



