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Darwinism and American Society
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Darwinism and American Society
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Charles Darwin being a biologist came up with the idea of natural selection, which entails
plants and animals change naturally throughout time as new species emerge from recessive
disorders at the time of procreation and compete with other plants and animals for food prevent
being eliminated, and produce offspring. Many sociologists applied Darwin's vocabulary and
concepts to their theories and viewpoints on the human external realm (Khan Academy, n.d.).
They were changing and twisting Darwin's words means exploiting the expanding divide
between the rich and the poor in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. They were
using evolutionary terminology to understand their own social, commercial, and geopolitical
justifications.
Count Arthur de Gobineau in Europe was the most influential proponent of a supremacist
ideology. Gobineau stated that the world's three great races, white, black, and yellow, all
developed civilizations due to the white races' collaboration and that no nation could exist
without it. He said that the blacks were physically solid but not as intelligent as the white people
when it came to thoughtful ideas, and this is how he presented social Darwinism, according to
him. Houston Stewart Chamberlain also comes out strongly with race and the Germanic power
that was vast. Houston had a long-running denunciation against Jews, depicting them as hate-
filled people yearning for power and retribution. They battled the Greeks because they intended
to demolish anything Jewish (Chapoutot,2015). He presented the hard times that had been
presented because of races not mixing and being unequal because of their differences.
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Sociologists invaded Charles Darwins Idea of natural selection, making it their own by
inventing ideas that were beneficial to them socially, politically, and economically. Charles
Darwin stood by his work, and In defense of his theory, Darwin cited fossil findings among other
sources. Hebert Spenser also contributed to social Darwinism by coming with the slogan
"Survival for the fittest." He stated that the rich had the power and money, thus being fit,
whereas the poor were unfit, and therefore only the fit should survive. He contributed mainly to
creating the gap between the rich and poor. Josiah Strong believed that the Anglo Saxons were
way much better and advanced than all other races; he argued that America was in a race with
other nations and that the inferior races should do missionary work to avoid getting extinct.
Frank Ward's most outstanding contribution to sociology was his belief that social laws may be
managed and governed once found. Ward believed in the equality of women and the fairness of
all social levels and ethnicities. Carnegie expanded on the theory of Social Darwinism. He
claimed that wealth concentrated in the hands of several was beneficial to society because they
would make the best use of it. However, this prosperity came a profound moral obligation to
spend it for the betterment of society.
Eugenicists were significant in the passage of the "Immigration Restriction Act of 1924
in the United States to stop the flood of Southeast European immigrants", whom eugenics saw as
foreigners "of the lower scores of cognitive ability" and foreigners "who are making an extreme
participation to our pitiful, absurd, felon, and other socially inadequate classes." Global standards
meetings, spanning three major Worldwide Eugenics Congresses, allowed eugenicists to share
their discoveries which targeted the minorities, immigrants, and women. Eugenic policies and
concepts were also thoroughly scrutinized and followed by countries (the University Of
Minnesota, n.d.). The damaging beliefs of social Darwinism also impacted Americans'
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connections with people from other countries. During the Second Industrial Revolution, many
immigrants entered the United States, and white Anglo-Saxon Americans saw them negatively
because they differed from previous immigrant groups. They were less confident in their English
skills and were more likely to be Catholic or Jewish than Protestant.
Eugenics has its roots in late-nineteenth-century social Darwinism, an era when
efficiency, competitiveness, and genetic rationalizations of disparity were prominent. Survival
for the fittest is aimed at retaining only the fit. Since they understood the art of artificial
selection, they opted for that choice to only have more substantial breeds. The abuses of
industrialism spawned the social gospel. American towns had become attractions for inexpensive
labor by the turn of the twentieth century. Impoverishment gave birth to a new type of
pessimism. Wealthy industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were viewed as
unconcerned about the plight of the poor. The social rose to deal with these difficulties that had
presented themselves many protestants came to believe that via structural reforms, such as
legislation addressing child labor, slums, and slum housing, and unhealthy working conditions,
human beings could indeed construct God's Kingdom on earth(PBS, n.d.).The church grew
stronger and stronger, ensuring that people believed in God and catered for their problems. That
is why charitable works of religious people exist.
Andrew Carnegie invented the law of competition in the gospel world by stating that
people have to have an economic vision, and living conditions have been revolutionized. He
stated that life is unfair, and people should strive to sustain themselves. The Fundamentalist
Christians present development and religion as incompatible. Some people believe that accepting
the basic ideas of evolutionary philosophy entails denying their Christian convictions, leading to
significant disagreement. Some evolutionists contribute to this by making disparaging remarks
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about religious views while promoting creation. They believe that God does creation, which is
why they oppose Darwin's law of natural selection.
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References
Khan Academy (n.d.) Social Darwinism in the Gilded Age Retrieved from
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/the-gilded-age/gilded-age/a/social-
darwinism-in-the-gilded-age
Chapoutot Johann (2015). From Humanism to Nazism: Antiquity in the Work of Houston
Stewart Chamberlain. Miranda Retrieved from
https://journals.openedition.org/miranda/6680
PBS(n.d.) Fundamentalism and the Social Gospel retrieved from
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/monkeytrial-fundamentalism-
and-social-gospel/
The University Of Minnesota (n.d.) Eugenics, Race &Immigration Restriction retrieved from
https://cla.umn.edu/ihrc/news-events/other/eugenics-race-immigration-restriction
