Friday, November 20, 2009

Eliminate the Strong to Assist the Weak

The title of this post comes from the Chinese idiom, 除强扶弱. The meaning of this idiom is to assist the weak by standing up (for them) to the strong. However, the literal translation is "Eliminate the Strong to Assist the Weak", which is insane.

It is possible to imagine assisting the weak as a good act, but eliminating the strong is clearly crazy. Taken together, the literal translation seems to be promoting a sort of anti-Darwinist reverse-eugenics. The intent is evil, aimed at evolving a society of weakened beings.

A rearrangement of the idiom to the form 除弱扶强, or "eliminate the weak to assist the strong", is at least consistent with some form of positive social goals.

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