Page 117 - The Social Weapon: Darwinism
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The 1946 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica says that:
This new period of imperialism at the end of the 19th century
found its spiritual support in Bismarckism and social Darwinism,
in all the theories glorifying power and success, which had swept
over Europe... Racial theories seemed to give to this new attitude,
which was in opposition to all traditional [i.e. Christian] values of
morality, a justification by “science” and “nature,” the belief in
which was almost becoming the dominant faith of the period. 63
A great many researchers and authors accept that Social
Darwinism represents the origin of the 19th century's new impe-
rialism. For instance, in Darwin and the Darwinian Revolution,
Professor of History Gertrude Himmelfarb says this about the
close relationship between Social Darwinist racism and imperi-
alism:
Social Darwinism has often been understood in this sense: as a
philosophy exalting competition, power and violence over con-
vention, ethics, and religion. Thus it has become a portmanteau of
nationalism, imperialism, militarism, and dictatorship, of the
cults of the hero, the superman, and the master race. 64
The well-known German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler de-
scribes this aspect of Social Darwinism in these terms:
... it [Social Darwinism] allowed the emancipatory aspirations of
the workers or colonial peoples to be dismissed as the futile
protestations of inferior subjects in the struggle for existence.
Vested with an aura of 'irrefutable' scientific knowledge, it was
this versatility of application that gave Social Darwinism its
power in its very real connection with the ruling interests. As an
ideology it proved virtually ideal for justifying imperialism,
[and] was kept alive by a host of popularizers in the industri-
alised nations. 65
Harun Yahya - Adnan Oktar