Though 'persister' bacteria existed long before Teddy Roosevelt was born, they were not discovered until about twenty five years after he died, so he never lived long enough to see one of his many pet certitudes about 'Nature' being questioned by Nature.
Teddy Roosevelt campaigned long and hard against men and women who refused to have lots of children, or even no children at all.
He labelled them all as weaklings and defectives, traitors to the race and said their behavior was an affront to Nature and sure to lead to race suicide. But was he scientifically accurate in saying so ?
Showing posts with label teddy roosevelt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teddy roosevelt. Show all posts
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Teddy Roosevelt : 4F &1A, fit and unfit, defective, degenerate --- and heroic
When Theodore Roosevelt was a young adult, he was told by his doctors that because of his many serious chronic diseases, he should take up a soft indoor occupation if he wished a normal lifespan.
Instead, Teddy self-consciously took up his famous 'vigorous life'.
(However, partly due to his excessive vigour, he in the end only lived to age sixty, which he might also have reached if he had taken up the soft life !)
He lived in an age when most scientists considered that humans had a very, very, limited ability to alter the health their genome gave them at birth ------ except to drive it downhill and then inevitably pass that bad health on to their descendants.
Instead, Teddy self-consciously took up his famous 'vigorous life'.
(However, partly due to his excessive vigour, he in the end only lived to age sixty, which he might also have reached if he had taken up the soft life !)
He lived in an age when most scientists considered that humans had a very, very, limited ability to alter the health their genome gave them at birth ------ except to drive it downhill and then inevitably pass that bad health on to their descendants.
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