Page 33 - Romanticism: A Weapon of Satan

Romantic Nationalism

races," and considered Africans, Asians, and even Turks, as "primitive
and half-ape."
With the spread of Darwin's theory, racism and militancy quickly
gained support, to the point where they began to be perceived as 31
"scientific fact."
The relationship between Darwinism and romantic nationalism
should thus be clear: romantic nationalists founded their lust for
conflict, and their obsession with the superiority of their own race over
others, on Darwinism.
It is possible to recognise Darwinism's catastrophic influence at
work in the extraordinary degree of bloodshed that took place during
World War l. Without a moment's hesitation, German, French, English,
Russian and Austrian generals sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers
to their deaths, for nothing. They adhered to the Darwinian slogan
that, "living things develop through conflict and races rise to pre-
eminence through war." It was in accordance to this line of thought
that they gave the command for war.
For example, the connection between war and the laws of natural
conflict was upheld by Friedrich von Bernhardi, a First World War
general. "War" declared Bernhardi "is a
biological necessity"; it "is as necessary as
the struggle of the elements of nature"; it
"gives a biologically just decision, since its
decisions rest on the very nature of
things." 4
The Commander-in-Chief of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, General Franz
Baron Conrad von Hoetzendorff, wrote in
his memoirs after the war:
Philanthropic religions, moral teachings
and philosophical doctrines may
certainly sometimes serve to weaken
mankind's struggle for existence in its
Charles Darwin's theory brought
crudest form, but they will never succeed
misery upon misery to the world.