Page 19 - The Disasters Darwinism Brought To Humanity

T
R
S
I
H
O

M
I
S
H
S
T
R
A
D
N
I
W

Y
R
O
F
O

A A S H O R T H I S T O R Y O F D A R W I N I S M 19
vival, and in this way the rapidly increasing population would be bal-
th
anced. In 19 century England this "crush the poor" programme was actu-
ally implemented. An industrial system was founded where children of
eight or nine were made to work 16 hours a day in the coal mines and
where thousands died from the bad conditions. The theoretical "struggle
for survival" which Malthus's theory found necessary, condemned mil-
lions of poor people in England to a life full of suffering.
Darwin, influenced by Malthus, applied this view to the whole of
nature, and proposed that this war, which actually existed, would be won
by the strongest and the fittest. This claim of Darwin's included all plants,
animals, and human beings. He also stressed that the struggle for survival
in question was a permanent and unchanging law of nature. By denying
creation he was inviting people to abandon their religious beliefs and in
this way aiming at all ethical principles that might be an obstacle to the
ruthlessness of this "struggle for survival."
For this reason Darwin's theory found the support of the Establish-
ment at its back, right from the moment it came to be heard, first in England
and later in the entire West. The imperialists, capitalists and other material-
ists who greeted this theory, which provided a scientific justification for the
political and social system they had founded, did not delay in taking it up.
Within a short time the theory of evolution was brought to be the sole cri-
terion in every sphere of interest to human societies, from sociology to his-
tory, from psychology to politics. In every sphere the basic idea was the slo-
gan of the "fight for survival" and "the survival of the fittest," and political
parties, nations, administrations, commercial firms, and individuals began
to live in the warmth of these slogans. Because the ruling ideologies in soci-
ety had identified with Darwinism, Darwinist propaganda began to be car-
ried out in every field, from education to art, from politics to history. It was
attempted to establish links between every subject and Darwinism and to
shed light on them from a Darwinist viewpoint. As a result of this, even if
people did not know Darwinism, models of society living the lives predict-
ed by Darwinism began to be formed.
Darwin himself recommended that his views based on evolution be