Humans have strived for perfection since the dawn of time. Many people are envied or deprecated because of certain traits they are born with. Those that are envied are a select few, which in turn is why they are envied. When one child in a nursery has a toy, he is coveted by all the other children in the nursery. He will be idolized, and nearly every child will want to be his friend. However, there will also those that want the toy for themselves. The children that are jealous will do whatever they can to get the toy. The jealous children often resort to violence, and this is true in all aspects of life. Individuality, and differences are the reasons for many of the world’s problems. While physical traits play a large role, there are mental characteristics that are shun as well. Those who are different tend to be looked down upon, and often try to get revenge for being beleaguered . So while individuality is an admirable trait, and is envied by many, genetic engineering could help to reduce many prejudices, and bring some harmony, and equality to the world.
In late spring of 1999, two teenagers changed the way many people look at school. The two members of the “trench coat mafia,” gunned down twelve of their classmates, and one of their teachers, before taking their own lives. They wounded many others in what has become one of the most infamous days in the past decade. The two gunmen were considered different from their peers. They were not athletic, or good-looking, traits often associated with being popular. They were harassed from the beginning of their school years, and up until the day they took their lives. If we had the technology to make them have big muscles, and great looking skin, would they have been harassed? Would they have been outsiders if they looked and dressed like everybody else? The answers to these questions will never be known, but using the knowledge of our society, one would have to say that they would not have done this horrible act of violence. It is unlikely that their peers would mock them if they were the same as everyone else.
Do disabled people make fun of each other? No, but those who aren’t disabled love to poke fun at those that are. So with a society that lacks variety there would likely be no racism, and a great reduction of hatred. It is doubtful that individuals would look down on someone, when everyone is equal.
The proposal that everyone be equal is not far fetched. With the technology to manipulate genes, would come many benefits. Regulations could be established to set standards on how a person could look. I’m not saying everyone would be drop dead gorgeous, but more so that everyone would be closer to societies desired traits. There would still be enough variety, to keep things interesting, but there wouldn’t be any people cast out because of the size of their nose, or any other undesirable trait. This would not solve all the problems with prejudice, but it certainly would help. There would still be different races, and different religions, but within each race there would be less segregation of classes.
Imagine a world without any morons. I know it sounds impossible, and un-entertaining (imagine no Homer Simpson), but would there be geeks and nerds in school if the bullies were a little smarter? Again not everyone would be a Nobel prize winning scientist, but there would be no dumb kid in class. By engineering peoples brains, we could eliminate many of the stereotypes that are present from a child’s first day of school. Understandably one would question whether there would still be people in lower levels of the workforce. The answer is simple, while they may be smarter every person would still have to make their own choices. They would not automatically be born so smart that they could run a “Fortune 500 ” company. There would be no guarantee’s, but at least everyone would have an equal chance to succeed.
This is what genetic engineering is all about, giving those who would be born without basic skills, a chance to make something of themselves.
Knowing that variety is the spice of life, one would think that a genetically engineered world would never work. Without variety, one would think that society would crumble. That by bringing down the top people we would not be able to make new discoveries, and technology. I propose that it wouldn’t. By bringing the bottom people up, and the top people down a little would greatly increase competition. As virtually everyone knows, competition takes a good thing and makes it better. When a starting football player has no backup, he has no reason to work hard, because he has no fear of losing his starting position. However, when he has a backup equal to him in many ways he is forced to push himself harder, or lose his position. The competition to be better makes the both of them better football players and helps the team out overall. The same is true in the workforce. An employee will work harder to get a promotion, if someone else has chance as well. With more competition, imagine the increased production rates, and increased quality in production. With everyone constantly fighting to be number one, the economy would be constantly booming.
The benefits of genetic engineering would largely outweigh the negative aspects. An increase in competition, and the chance for everyone to make their mark are just a few of the numerous benefits. While there would still be some problems with equality, many of them would be soothed. Though we would lose some diversity, it wouldn’t have a large impact, because the world is already diverse enough.
