I applaud a free society that makes reconstructive surgery more affordable, but not one that turns beauty into a lie
LvMI President Doug French brings us an interesting paean to specialization, cooperation and free markets, Plastic Surgery: A Free Society Is a Beautiful Society, that my cussed and contrary nature balks at.
Says Doug (emphasis added):
Cosmetic physicians don’t necessarily specialize in the procedures that are demanded by people of their own ethnicity, illustrating Ludwig von Mises’s point that the division of labor is a unifying influence. These doctors and their patients are comrades seeking beauty, just one tiny example of the division of labor making “friends out of enemies, peace out of war, society out of individuals.”
Plato couldn’t have fathomed cosmetic surgery or certainly the ability of working-class people being able to afford having their looks altered surgically. However, his insight assures us that, in a free society, the cost of cosmetic surgery would fall to allow everyone to have the body and face they want, making society free and beautiful.
While beauty IS definitely in the eye of the beholder, it ain’t skin deep. Chiselled bodies and naturally attractive faces tell us something about the physical, mental and genetic fitness of the individuals who sport them. There’s reason why we find beauty and being in good physical condition attractive (this is more or less encoded in our genes, though our fashion sense may differ somewhat by culture and era).
As we live in a word of others, it is not surprising that we may make efforts to “look good” – but those efforts that go beyond personal efforts to stay fit, or to be in top physical shape for a particular sport, can pose personal and social problems.
Should we likwise cheer on doping or surgical enhancements in sports, and cheating in school and business, or developments in cooperation and specialization that make smooth-talking and lying easier and harder to detect?
Even as I leave choices on cosmetics and cosmetic surgery to those providing and vending it, and have to say sorry, but I prefer to cheer on honesty and hard work over deceipt, in all its seductive forms.
Why the Hell should I care about ‘genetic fitness’? The human species is not an end in itself. The only end in itself is me, what I want. Everything else is entirely subsidiary to that.