Page 18 - The Disasters Darwinism Brought To Humanity

18 T T H E D I S A S T E R S D A R W I N I S M B R O U G H T T O H U M A N I T Y Y
W
R
A
I
S
M
N
I
D
A
S
I
S
T
S

E
R

H
U
O

M
I
T
A
N
O
U
B
R
G

T
H
T
D
H
E

population under control were disasters, such as war, famine, and dis-
ease. In short, in order for some people to live, it was necessary for others
to die. Existence meant "permanent war."
Darwin declares that it was Malthus's book which made him think
about the struggle for existence:
In October, 1838, that is, fifteen months after I had begun my systematic
inquiry, I happened to read for amusement Malthus on population, and
being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which every-
where goes on from long continuous observation of the habits of animals
and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable
variations would tend to be preserved and unfavourable ones to be
destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here,
then, I had at last got a theory by which to work. 2
In the 19 century Malthus's ideas had been adopted by quite a wide
th
public. Upper-class European intellectuals in particular supported
Malthus's ideas. The importance that 19 th century Europe gave to
Malthus's ideas on population is put across in the article The Scientific
Background of the Nazi "Race Purification" Programme:
In the opening half of the nineteenth century, throughout Europe, members
of the ruling classes gathered to discuss the newly discovered "Population
problem" and to devise ways of implementing the Malthusian mandate, to
increase the mortality rate of the poor: "Instead of recommending cleanli-
ness to the poor, we should encourage contrary habits. In our towns we
should make the streets narrower, crowd more people into the houses, and
court the return of the plague. In the country we
should build our villages near stagnant pools,
and particularly encourage settlements in all
marshy and unwholesome situations," and so
forth and so on. 3
As a result of this cruel policy, the strong
would defeat the weak in the struggle for sur-
Thomas Malthus, who influenced Darwin and pro-
posed that war and scarcity balanced the rapid rise in
world population.