To the
social Darwinists (the most famous being
Herbert Spencer), the importance in
Darwin’s theories lay in the implied existence of a
biological hierarchy -- with the superior organisms at the top and the inferior
organisms at the
bottom.
This was, unfortunately, too easily applied to many different aspects of society. The conclusion was made that the misery of the poor was due to inherent defects in their moral character. Subsequently,
Social Darwinists felt that state
intervention, through the form of poor
laws, state supported
education, sanitary supervision, regulation of housing conditions and even state protection of the ignorant from
medical quacks – these were all concepts which would interfere with the
laws of nature. If left to themselves, these laws would move civilization on a progressively bettering line, eliminating the
weak and
immoral and producing a more biologically sound
society. The argument stated that a misdirected
humanitarianism was threatening the quality of the
race, by fostering the
protection of its weaker
members.
The easy acceptance of Darwinian theories is easily understood. It is in no way an explanation of any type of reality however – merely a caricature of Darwin’s theories to justify many ruthless practices of businessmen, imperialists, racists, and eugenicists. Also see Sterilization, a method which was even adopted in some states when this movement was at its peak.
David Suzuki once commented of the Human Genome Project that even if each gene of each chromosome in the human body is mapped and decoded into a series of nucleotide bases, this would still not give us a better understanding of what it means to be human. In the same way, social Darwinism cannot give us a better understanding of what governs society and it’s changes; it can only illuminate a justification that has fostered thousands of cases of exploitation for over a century.
Because Darwinism has had popular and then unpopular stages, does not mean that it has disappeared as a reliable fallback for dominant groups. It will remain to be this way so long as there is a strong element of predation in society. The phrase “survival of the fittest” has a fixed place in the public mind.