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Final Solutions: Biology, Prejudice

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Lerner's book describes in vivid detail how, when taken too far, people can let their own dogma get the best of them. Final Solutions extends ideas of determinism beyond the purely bilogical and includes the cultural as well. He demonstrates how people like social scientist and Social Darwinist Richard Herrstein perpetuate the belief that the society we live in today is "just and fair" to all. In that belief, one would consequently arrive at the conclusion that the poor, weak, homeless, and otherwise downtrodden are in their rightful stations in life. The author finds these views to be dangerous because of their ability to cloud the judgement of others who willingly accept it as fact rather than engaging in self-exploration.

This book thus is about much more than THE Final Solution that has become the familiar term that describes the Nazi annihilation of the Jews during WWII. It vividly points out how thoughts, followed by human aggression, followed by selection (targeting groups for mass execution or just creating social, economic, or political obstacles to their progress) is pernicious. Final Solutions descibes then the process of hate and how it is inextricably linked to one's genetic make up. That combination of enmity and genetic make up, Lerner warns us, has (and may continue to in the future) led to genocide.

On the whole, Final Solution reminds us that the doctrine of both biological and cultural determinism inhibits and outright denies human freedom --- not just to those pre-selected groups, but to us all.