The United States of America, compared to other countries around the world, is a very young country. Given what has transpired over the past few decades, you have to wonder how long it is going to say united. There are powerful forces working hard to divide the population and to destroy whatever success America has achieved over the years. Not that long ago the US was a shining light, a beacon of hope that brought direction to the rest of the world, a democracy that other nations sought to follow. Today it has become a garbage dump led by squalid dumpster divers looking to find anything of any worth in the garbage to grab for themselves, aside from the wealth they have already accrued, and to hell with everybody else.
The focus on self in America has now devolved into a state of total selfishness. America’s motto might well now be “I’ll alright Jack, what’s your effing problem?” Or, even worse, “what’s in it for me?” Under President John F. Kennedy’s leadership, the question was not “what can the country do for me?” Rather, it was, “what can I do for my country?” Under the woeful example set by the multibillionaire and convicted criminal Donald Trump, the question now is: “How do I personally profit?”
The rot burrowing through what’s left of America’s soul started at the founding of the country when some people profited greatly from enslaving their fellow man and turning them into farm animals to further enrich themselves. Those rich people wore their hate and greed like flags, going so far as to start a civil war killing over 700,000 of their fellow citizens so they could further their own wealth. They justified their greed and rage through the long-discredited philosophy of “survival of the fittest.”
Enslaved African slaves were obviously lesser beings not worth of equality because they had been overcome by force. “Might is right” was the slogan of the slave owners, because they obviously had the might in the form of weapons. These days such might is evidenced by the twin evils of technology and wealth. American autocrats from Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos lust to spread their power and control even wider. “Survival of the fittest?” It’s a phony slogan always used to justify greed and self-interest. The truth, however, is somewhat different.
Charles Darwin did not coin the phrase “survival of the fittest” (it was invented by his colleague and opponent Herbert Spencer), or its eventual evolvement into “dog-eat-dog.” Darwin’s work argued directly against that foul term. Darwin equated the success of human evolution (and even “lower animals”) to the understanding of compassion. What Darwin wrote after his research in the Galapagos about evolution was totally the opposite to Spencer’s opinion. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives,” Darwin wrote, “nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change.”
It was The Principles of Biology (1864) by Spencer that introduced the expression “survival of the fittest” to public debate. According to the British Library, Spencer argued against the theories of Darwin and has been credited with the mistaken idea that “might is right,” also known as “social Darwinism.”
Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species (1858) did not include human beings in its discussions of species evolution, but his ideas were soon applied to human groups and organizations. The shorthand term “Darwinian” spread very quickly after 1859 and by the late 1870s the phrase “social Darwinism” began to be applied, and in the following decades was used to describe and justify a whole range of political and ideological positions.
Just like 2026, the scale of social change during the 19th century because of industrialization, urbanization and technological innovation was unprecedented and led to Britain’s competitive capitalist economy, in which some people became enormously wealthy and others struggled amidst the direst poverty. (Sound familiar?) It was argued that markets should be allowed to operate freely without government intervention, allowing wealth creation to flourish through competition. Social Darwinism confirmed this singular view that species compete and struggle and only some (the fittest and best) survive. Actually, Darwin proved that co-operation was far more important, especially for those creatures, including humans, who live in groups.
Spencer argued that to try to help the weak “flies in the face of nature.” Attempts to aid the weakest in society, he said — such as improving the living and working conditions of the poorest people — were dangerously mistaken and risked impeding the forces of “evolutionary advancement.” Notions of competitiveness often appeared in justifications of Britain’s Imperial ambitions. For instance, at the end of the 19th century there was fierce rivalry amongst European colonizers keen to exploit mineral and other natural (i.e. “human”) resources in Africa. Social Darwinists argued that Indigenous populations unable to withstand the greater military and economic power of a colonizing force must inevitably be pushed aside to make room for “fitter” competitors.
Similar ideas were important for Robert Knox, whose 1850 book The Races of Man classified and evaluated all human beings according to their race, and insisted that race was the most important determining feature of behavior and character. Arguments such as his were used to support the retention of slavery in the southern states of America. Darwin was horrified by slavery and his revolutionary ideas about human evolution helped many Victorians to imagine a dynamic world of progress. Slavery was eventually abolished.
Towards the end of the 19th century, however, Darwin’s theories of evolution became the basis of fears for social, racial and cultural degeneration and decline. Evolution was countered by frightening examples of “devolution,” like Robert Louis Stevenson’s book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), whose gentlemanly Jekyll turns into the beastly Hyde upon drinking a potion, whose squat, ape-like body, dark, hairy hands, and animal energy all signal a “primitive” state. The argument continues to this day and “survival of the fittest” is used an excuse by many to continue to exploit their fellow man.
But I am reminded of another Darwin’s quote, perhaps less well known: “If the misery of the poor not be caused by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” This realization is just as profound as Darwin’s original theory of evolution, which is no longer a theory but established scientific fact.
The 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee, was a landmark legal case where high school teacher John Scopes was convicted of violating the Butler Act by teaching human evolution. It was a showdown between believers in “creationism” and modern science, featuring defense attorney Clarence Darrow against prosecutor William Jennings Bryan, highlighting deep 1920s American cultural conflicts. The same “polarization” today between conflicting cultures that commenced over a century ago reveals that not much has changed culturally in America, where the rich and greedy employ the same mindset (“dog eat dog”) as their forebears did to subjugate their fellow man.
The harmful and corrupt institutions to which Darwin referred over a century ago remain the same in much of modern America; a corrupt political arena, compromised courts of law, and the wealthy — all powerful men (no women) in possession of great income to bypass democratic laws — and to ignore any form of compassion in favour of continued greed. Slaves of yesteryear have been replaced by the poor of today, unable to access the American dream of a decent job and home ownership, turning instead to drugs and consumer goods for a pretense of temporary happiness.
Social Darwinists who still espouse the credo of “might versus right” should be reminded that in the long run its those societies that understand and follow Darwin’s teachings about compassion, cooperation, and adaptation to change that survive, not Spencer’s selfish and ignorant critique about dogs eating dogs. But I am reminded once again of Darwin’s less well-known but more profound quote: “If the misery of the poor not be caused by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.”