[lit-ideas] Re: Social Darwinism or Darwinian Socialism
- From: "Stan Spiegel" <writeforu2@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2005 00:57:09 -0500
Google gave me a fuller, even more chilling version than I'd considered of the
meaning of social darwinism. The link below gives the whole article.
Stan - Portland, ME
The Misapplication of a Biological Theory
But, for our purposes, it is the use to which some people made of biological
evolution which concerns us. Some simplified the idea to "survival of the
fittest." Others believed that an identical process took place among human
beings. They believed that white Protestant Europeans had evolved much further
and faster than other "races." And some, especially the followers of Herbert
Spencer, took it one step further. Human society is always in a kind of
evolutionary process in which the fittest- which happened to be those who can
make lots of money--were chosen to dominate. There were armies of unfit, the
poor, who simply could not compete. And just as nature weeds out the unfit, an
enlightened society ought to weed out its unfit and permit them to die off so
as not to weaken the racial stock.
This idea eventually led to a variety of practices and beliefs, e.g., Nordic
Racism, used by German anthropologists and later Nazi theoreticians. It also
led to eugenics in which, it was believed, the unfit transmit their undesirable
characteristics. A breeding program for human beings would see to it that the
unfit did not transmit their undesirable characteristics.
Another application of a biological concept to human behavior was the notion
that any attempt to provide welfare for the poor was a tragically misguided
mistake. Feeding or housing the poor simply permitted them to survive and to
transmit their unfitness to their children, who in turn would pass it on to
their children. A spurious piece of sociology about two families known as the
Jukes and the Kallikaks purported to trace a race of criminals and prostitutes
to two persons in the Revolutionary War. This study was used for many years to
demonstrate that "inferiority" was inherited.
Many in our culture did not bother to read Spencer, Darwin nor did they realize
the oversimplification of eugenics. But that is not the point. The point is
that a piece of ideology got into American life and assumed considerable
importance. What is also significant is that some, e.g., wealthy
industrialists, believed that what they were doing was supported by science
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Shortcut to: http://www.ioa.com/~shermis/socjus/socdar.html
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