Yogurt: A Barrier to Women's Success - Raritan Valley Community ...

12The exact anxieties and concerns expressed by Kid A have beenprecisely forecasted in Sandel’s writings, from the projected expectations tothe disruption of the ability to form human connections. Sandel relates thisextreme level of pressure that will befall the augmented humans of thefuture to eugenics and modern hyperparenting. While presenting the casethat these are forms of forcefully molding children, he is careful to explainthat does not make either acceptable, stating that “hyperparenting familiarin our time represents an anxious excess of mastery and dominion thatmisses the sense of life as a gift” (272). Such practices defy the balance ofaccepting and transforming love necessary for effective, loving parentingargues Sandel, stating that “these days, however, overly ambitious parentsare prone to get carried away with transforming love – promoting anddemanding all manner of accomplishments from their children, seekingperfection” (271). Such a penchant for perfection can only lead to anunhealthy, loveless relationship between parent and child, and geneticadjustment towards perfection falls under the field of a lack of acceptance onthe part of parents, or the loss of an “‘openness to the unbidden’” (qtd. inSandel, 269). In this same field also resides the subject of the pressure toperform which will undeniably be placed upon children who receive geneticenhancement, akin to the manner in which it bears down upon Kid A. Sandelproposes that, contrary to popular belief, there will be an explosion, noterosion, of responsibility on behalf of the augmented, as the level of what isexpected of such enhanced humans will be severely disproportionate to thatof an ordinary human. Also, in relation to this trend of skyrocketingexpectations, Sandel argues that society can expect the deterioration ofhuman solidarity, as societal distances form a wedge between what willbecome the presiding classes of the enhanced and unenhanced. The blunt ofthese predictions pervade the personal world of Kid A, debasing hisexistence to one of anxiety and solitude.