Page 204 - The Evolution Impasse 2

202 Social Darwinism

Britain, and then from that in the You will read i ly be lieve how much in -
wid er Western world. The im pe ri al - ter est ed I am in ob serv ing that you ap -
ists, cap i tal ists and oth er ma te ri al ists ply to mor al and so cial ques tions anal -
de light ed in a the o ry that sci en tif i - o gous views to those which I have used
in re gard to the mod i fi ca tion of spe cies.
cal ly jus ti fied the po lit i cal and so cial
It did not oc cur to me for mer ly that my
or der they had es tab lished, and lost
views could be ex tend ed to such wide -
no time in sup port ing it.
ly dif fer ent, and most im por tant, sub -
In a very short time, the the o ry of
jects. 229
ev o lu tion be came the sole cri te ri on
With the adop tion of the idea that
in ev ery field of con cern to hu man
the con flicts in na ture al so ex ist ed in
so ci e ties, from so ci ol o gy to his to ry
hu man so ci e ties, in the forms of ra -
and from psy chol o gy to pol i tics. The
cism, fas cism, com mu nism and im -
ba sic idea in all spheres was the slo -
pe ri al ism, the pow er ful na tions' at -
gan "sur viv al of the fit test," and na -
tempts to crush those they re gard ed
tions, po lit i cal par ties, ad min is tra -
as weak er ac quired a sup pos ed ly
tions, busi ness es and in di vid u als all
sci en tif ic jus ti fi ca tion. Those who
be gan be hav ing in light of them.
car ried out bar bar ic slaugh ter, who
Since the ide ol o gies that dom i nat ed
be gan wars, who den i grat ed oth ers
so ci e ty had lined up be hind
be cause of their race, who caused
Darwinism, open and covert
busi ness es to close due to un fair
Darwinist prop a gan da ap peared in
com pe ti tion, and those who re fused
all fields, from ed u ca tion to art and
help the poor were now not to be
from pol i tics to his to ry.
crit i cized or re strained—be cause
Attempts were made to link ev -
they act ed in con form i ty with a law
ery thing to Darwinism and to ac -
of na ture.
count for ev ery thing in Darwinian
terms. As a re sult, even if peo ple This new, sup pos ed ly sci en tif ic the o ry
assumed the name of Social
were ig no rant of Darwinism, so ci e -
Darwinism.
ties that lived the kind of life it fore -
saw be gan to emerge. The American pa le on tol o gist
Darwin him self ap proved mor al Stephen Jay Gould, one of the lead -
con cep tions based on ev o lu tion and ing present-day ad vo cates of the the -
their ap pli ca tion to the so cial sci en - o ry of ev o lu tion, ad mits as much:
ces. In a let ter to H. Thiel writ ten in Subsequent ar gu ments for slav ery, co -
1869, he wrote: lo ni al ism, ra cial dif fer en ces, class

The Evolution Impasse II