Page 85 - The Social Weapon: Darwinism
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like statesmen to philosophers, from politicians to scientists, adopted
Darwin's theory. In The Twisted Road to Auschwitz, Professor Karl A.
Schleunes of North Carolina University's history faculty describes
how:
Darwin's notion of struggle for survival was quickly appropriated by
the racists... such struggle, legitimized by the latest [so-called] scientific
views, justified the racists' conception of superior and inferior peoples...
and validated the struggle between them. 37
With the claims put forward by Darwin, those who held racist
views naturally imagined that they had found a scientific foundation
for their views about human classes. But shortly afterwards, science
revealed that in the same way that Darwin's claims had no scientific
validity, a great many movements built around Darwin's ignorant
views had committed an enormous error.
With the support it received from Darwinism, the Nazis prac-
ticed racism in the most violent manner. Yet Germany was not the
only place where so-called “scientific” racism reared its head. A num-
ber of racist administrators and intellectuals arose in many countries,
particularly in Great Britain and America, racist laws and practices
also made a rapid appearance.