I had heard some odd things about George Bernard Shaw and wanted to know more about him. This is what Wikipedia had to say about him:
George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) was an Irish playwright. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays. Nearly all his writings deal sternly with prevailing social problems, but have a vein of comedy to make their stark themes more palatable. Shaw examined education, marriage, religion, government, health care and class privilege.
He was most angered by what he perceived as the exploitation of the working class, and most of his writings censure that abuse. An ardent socialist, Shaw wrote many brochures and speeches for the Fabian Society. He became an accomplished orator in the furtherance of its causes, which included gaining equal rights for men and women, alleviating abuses of the working class, rescinding private ownership of productive land, and promoting healthy lifestyles.
Shaw married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a fellow Fabian, whom he survived. They settled in Ayot St. Lawrence in a house now called Shaw's Corner. Shaw died there, aged 94, from chronic problems exacerbated by injuries he incurred by falling.
He is the first person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (adaption of his play of the same name), respectively.[1] Shaw wanted to refuse his Nobel Prize outright because he had no desire for public honors, but accepted it at his wife's behest: she considered it a tribute to Ireland. He did reject the monetary award, requesting it be used to finance translation of Swedish books to English.[2]
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Fairly innocuous, right?
Here are some quotes from this Irish Nobel winning playwright that you would never guess from reading Wikipedia:
"I don't want to punish anybody, but there are an extraordinary number of people who I want to kill. I think it would be a good thing to make everybody come before a properly appointed board, just as he might come before the income tax commissioners and say every five years or every seven years.. just put them there and say sir, or madam, will you be kind enough to justify your existence? If you're not producing as much as you consume, or perhaps a little more then, clearly, we cannot use the big organization of our 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 yourself."
This is a video of Shaw speaking, so there is no chance that this is a misquote.
More from Wikipedia on him:
Personal life and political activism
Influenced by his reading, he became a dedicated Socialist and a charter member of the Fabian Society,[9] a middle class organization established in 1884 to promote the gradual spread of socialism by peaceful means.[6] In the course of his political activities he met Charlotte Payne-Townshend, an Irish heiress and fellow Fabian; they married in 1898. In 1906 the Shaws moved into a house, now called Shaw's Corner, in Ayot St. Lawrence, a small village in Hertfordshire; it was to be their home for the remainder of their lives, although they also maintained a residence at 29 Fitzroy Square in London.
Shaw's plays were first performed in the 1890s. By the end of the decade he was an established playwright. He wrote sixty-three plays and his output as novelist, critic, pamphleteer, essayist and private correspondent was prodigious. He is known to have written more than 250,000 letters.[10] Along with Fabian Society members Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb and Graham Wallas, Shaw founded the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1895 with funding provided by private philanthropy, including a bequest of £20,000 from Henry Hunt Hutchinson to the Fabian Society. One of the libraries at the LSE is named in Shaw's honor; it contains collections of his papers and photographs.[11]
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Wow. He sounds like a great guy who is just a little left, politically speaking. Thanks, Wikipedia.
Shaw wrote:
"I appeal to the chemists to discover a humane gas that will kill instantly and painlessly: in short, a gentlemanly gas - deadly by all means, but Humane not cruel."
He also suggested that beautiful classical music be played to people as they were herded into gas chambers.
Mind you, this was long before Hitler. What this tells us is that gas chambers weren't Hitler's idea. He, as Jonah Goldberg said, merely perfected them.
Shaw was a member of the British intelligentsia who, at that time, thought Eugenics was a great idea.
Does any of this bring Obama's science advisor John Holdren to mind and his great idea about forced sterilization? Got to love that intelligentsia.
But Wikipedia is apparently a fan and didn't want to distort Shaw's literary accomplishments with his ideology.
And yet another Nobel prize goes to a creature like this.
I think the Nobel Committee should simply disband. I didn't realize how long they'd been a public embarrassment.
And Wikipedia should tell it like it is, and not pick and choose the information they feel puts the best light on a liberal nut, intelligentsia or not.
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