The Operative And The Eugenicists

From Serenity:

The Operative: I'm sorry. If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to. You should have taken my offer. Or did you think none of this was your fault?
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: I don't murder children.
The Operative: I do. If I have to.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Why? Do you even know why they sent you?
The Operative: It's not my place to ask. I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A world without sin.
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: So me and mine gotta lay down and die... so you can live in your better world?
The Operative: I'm not going to live there. There's no place for me there... any more than there is for you. Malcolm... I'm a monster.What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done.

At Southern Bread,

Dave's mentioned the nefarious Mr. Holden and, of course Ruth Bader Ginsburg startling admission that abortion was supposed to be about controlling unwanted populations.

Of course, in Serenity, there came a certain point where the true believer stopped believing, the sin of the government was too large and to obvious for him to ignore. What I wonder is, what would it take for Old Ruth to backtrack. Obviously she's a bit concerned that there is no positive pressure- i.e. pressure or incentive for the 'right' sort of people to have children. Indeed, we now have quite the opposite, with plenty of incentive to stay childless for the very intelligent. Education, career building, etc- a woman can run right through all her fertile years, ironically proving she's exactly the sort these eugenicists would like to breed- meanwhile those they don't like so much are still having kids despite their best efforts. They fail by their own metrics and yet still adhere to their cause.

But, too, what does it take for the people to tell them to shove off? The operative's statements, though they are dialogue in a sci-fi movie are nonetheless the statement of governments everywhere- they will kill children, whenever they think they need to. We know this to be true, whether it's outright, like abortion, or the so-called collateral damage of bombs in a war.

This is what folks should have been thinking about when they heard 'yes, we can.'
There is a realm in which we most definitely should not, regardless of the dreams in our heads.