Page 35 - Romanticism: A Weapon of Satan

Romantic Nationalism

is not the result of a perversion of human nature but is the essence of
the world and the source of life itself. 6
Romanticism encourages passionate affiliation between those of
33
its own ranks, but incites anger and hatred against others. This is a
spirit very much in accordance with the Darwinian concept of "the
struggle for survival of the races." When applied in the social sciences,
Darwin's theory is given the name of "Social Darwinism," and has
been a major source of justification for romantic nationalism and
racism. The American writer Janet Biehl, in her article entitled
"Ecology and the Modernization of Fascism in the German Ultra
Right," has this to say on this topic:
Social Darwinism has deep roots in the German ultra-right… Like
Anglo-American social Darwinism, German social Darwinism
projected human social institutions onto the nonhuman world as
'natural laws,' then invoked those 'laws' to justify the human social
arrangements as 'natural.' It also applied the maxim 'survival of the
fittest' to society. But where Anglo-
American social Darwinism
conceived the 'fittest' as the
individual entrepreneur in a 'bloody
tooth and claw' capitalist jungle,
German social Darwinism
overwhelmingly conceived the
'fittest' in terms of race. Thus, the
'fittest' race not only would but
should survive, vanquishing all its
competitors in its 'struggle for
existence.' 7
In Germany, the most important
representative of Social Darwinism was
the biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919). Ernst Haeckel: Germany's
foremost proponent of Social
He contributed to Darwinism by Darwinism.
proposing the theory, summarised in