There is a persistent vision of humans as needing to conform to a model of perfection in order to earn the right to survive: success, good looks and power. Those who flourish must be the best ... well, because they flourish. Those deemed to fall short of the mark for whatever reason — especially if they happen to have physical or other incapacities, are pushed aside.
While Darwin may have observed the phenomenon of 'survival of the fittest' at play in evolution, leading to a scientific veneer being given to 'social Darwinism', the logic of might makes right is, in fact, ancient.
It is brutally expressed in Thucidydes' Melian Dialogue in which the Athenians justify the genocide which they are about to commit (in 415 BCE) on the people of Melos:
'Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a law of their nature wherever they can rule they will, This law was not made by us, and we are not the first who have acted upon it; we did but inherit it, and shall bequeath it to all time, and we know that you and all mankind, if you were as strong as we are, would do as we do.'
While this is ostensibly a more civilised age with lip-service being paid to the common rights of humans since the French Revolution, the Athenian world view is proving to be a remarkably persistent stain to eradicate — especially when it comes to the most vulnerable within societies.
The continuing struggles of women and people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds for equality are well-known. Less so, perhaps, is the history of disability discrimination.
People with disabilities have lived on society's margins since biblical times. In 1939, extending eugenics and sterilisation campaigns developed in the US in the early 20th century, Hitler authorised the vernichtung lebensunwerten Lebens ('the destruction of lives unworthy of life'), targeting those with extreme mental, physical and psychiatric disabilities.
This project was accelerated with the development of trucks designed to discharge their exhaust fumes within the car. The direct result was the gas chambers first tested in Sobibor and Treblinka and then used to destroy others deemed undesirable by the Nazis including, most notoriously, Jewish people.
"Meeting our need to live full and productive lives falls under a narrative of charity or pity — which can no longer be afforded when there are belts to be tightened or hard choices