social Darwinism

social Darwinism The (mis)application of Charles Darwin's theories of evolution to human society. In an attempt to find a biological (rather than economic) way to explain social inequalities and injustices, it held that human beings were created unequal, and that social injustice was the natural consequence. Closely related to this idea was the concept of eugenics, a pseudo-scientific attempt to create a better society through social engineering, i.e. the control of human mating, abortion of disabled unborn children, etc.

After World War I, in many countries, and particularly in central Europe, the focus shifted to more aggressive inter-‘racial’ applications of social Darwinism. A host of right-wing groups combined the idea of the ‘survival of the fittest’ with their latent anti-Semitism. Many developed a hierarchy with the nordic, ‘Aryan’ race at the top, Slavs near the lower end of the scale, and Jews at the bottom. What distinguished the Nazis from the many other right-wing groups holding these ideas was that they were prepared to carry this idea to its extreme and terrible conclusion. The genocide of Jews in concentration camps was thus mainly an attempt to ensure the ‘strength’ of the supposedly ‘Aryan’ German ‘race’. After World War II, social Darwinism was accordingly discredited.