George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw    (Playwright, critic, political activist)
Born	26 July 1856 Dublin, Ireland
Died	2 November 1950 (Age 94) Ayot St Lawrence, Hertfordshire, England
Nationality	United Kingdom, Irish
Alma mater	Wesley College (Dublin)
Spouse	Charlotte Payne-Townshend
Member of	Fabian Society
Interests	eugenics
Anglo-Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist keen on eugenics.

George Bernard Shaw was an Anglo-Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond.

Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to London in 1876, where he struggled to establish himself as a writer and novelist, and embarked on a rigorous process of self-education. By the mid-1880s he had become a respected theatre and music critic. Following a political awakening, he joined the socialist Fabian Society and became its most prominent pamphleteer.

Shaw promoted eugenics and alphabet reform, and opposed vaccination and organised religion. He courted unpopularity by denouncing both sides in the First World War as equally culpable.

World War 1

I see the Junkers and Militarists of England and Germany jumping at the chance they have longed for in vain for many years of smashing one another and establishing their own oligarchy as the dominant military power of the world."

After the First World War began in August 1914, Shaw produced his tract Common Sense About the War, which argued that the warring nations were equally culpable. Such a view was anathema in an atmosphere of fervent patriotism, and offended many of Shaw's friends; Ervine records that "[h]is appearance at any public function caused the instant departure of many of those present."

Of notice is that he was not arrested or interned like many antiwar activists.

Shaw's propagandist skills were recognised by the British authorities, and early in 1917 he was invited by Field Marshal Haig to visit the Western Front battlefields. Shaw's 10,000-word report, which emphasised the human aspects of the soldier's life, was well received. In April 1917 he joined the national consensus in welcoming America's entry into the war: "a first class moral asset to the common cause against junkerism".

Eugenics

George Bernard Shaw: There are an extraordinary number of people whom I want to kill

In a 1931 newsreel, he excitedly proposed eugenics, stating,

If you can’t justify your existence, if you’re not pulling your weight ... then clearly, we cannot use the organizations of society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can’t be of very much use to you.

Shaw argued in 1948, when profession of eugenics was out of fashion - that there are people that "will never toe the line and are therefore no use to the rest of society. "The ungovernables, the ferocious, the conscienceless, the idiots, the self-centered myops and morons, what of them?" he asked rhetorically. "Do not punish them. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill them."

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.

.