Page 58 - The Social Weapon: Darwinism

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arwinism lies behind a great many dangerous intellectual
trends, ideologies and practices that have persisted down
to the present day. It is most interesting that it constitutes
a foundation shared by ideologies that are completely opposed to one
another. Darwinism played a role in the birth and spread of Nazism,
fascism and communism, in the alleged justification of racist and com-
munist massacres, and also constituted the alleged scientific basis for
“unrestrained capitalism.” In Victorian Britain and America, in partic-
ular, Darwinism received great acclamation and was hugely strength-
ened because of the support it offered to ruthless capitalists known as
the “robber barons.”