Social Darwinism is a failed belief system that distorted Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory and applied it to social-political principles and cultural bias. It’s based on the concept that nature chooses the “strong” to succeed and win at life while the “weak” are destined for demise and eventual erasure. Social Darwinism is most responsible for justifying egregious racist policies, social inequality, and authoritarian governance throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and is well associated with Nazi Germany that resulted in the Holocaust from 1941-45. If Communism was the feared economic governing system of authoritarians, then Social Darwinism was their religion.
It’s important to note that Charles Darwin had no part in the formation of the ideological movement that bears his name. As a matter of fact, the earliest ideas predate his seminal work, On the Origin of Species (1859), with British philosopher, Herbert Spencer. It was Spencer who coined the phrase “survival of the fittest,” not based on science, but social and economic theories arising out of the capitalist and democratic movements in Europe and North America. Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (1776) and Thomas Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) would become the building blocks for theories on competition, natural limits, and social hierarchies that Social Darwinism is built on.[1]
If Communism became the feared economic governing system of authoritarians, then Social Darwinism was their religion.
At the foundation of the United States, society and Constitutional Law codified some of these early theories, most notably with “the three-fifths compromise” in Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution that counted 3 out of every 5 enslaved persons for the purpose of determining Congressional representation and federal tax assessment. The results disproportionately benefited slave-holding states while simultaneously dehumanizing enslaved Black persons in comparison to free white persons. As Social Darwinism gained popularity, its ideology was used to justify movements of segregation, nativism, closed borders, non-judicial deportations, and ethnocentric social groups.
An established democracy is not easily threatened by conservative or progressive social policies—it’s undermined by beliefs and values that do injustice to others. America remains resilient despite its imperfect past and hopeful promise, but a reemergence of Social Darwinism is upon us and ever present in our fracturing social bonds. From politicians to influential media personalities and corporate CEOs, we can hear and see echoes of social competition that rewards winners over losers, cultural strength over weakness, power over empathy, and the establishment of a ruling class of the ultra-wealthy over the rest.
Nearly 250 years after its founding, the United States is facing its greatest crisis yet. The crisis is not who’s in the White House, but of identity.
From the highest elected office, a Thanksgiving message promoted “fighting for Western civilization” and announced “removing anyone who is not a net asset” or “non-compatible with Western civilization” through the denaturalization of citizens and “reverse migration.”[2] This is Social Darwinian ideology on full display and emboldened.
Nearly 250 years after its founding, the United States is facing its greatest crisis yet. The crisis is not who’s in the White House, but of identity—our shared beliefs and values that inspire hope and goodness for ourselves and others.
With history as our guide, past wars against Communism, tyranny, terrorists, drugs, or those who threaten “our freedom” are misguided and disproportionate efforts that tragically do more harm than good. There is no justice in violence or hegemony, and greatness is not self-determined. It’s a title that must be continually earned and given by others.
Who we believe we are and meant to be as a nation, a people, and humanity under God has never been more important.
[1] https://www.perplexity.ai/search/what-is-social-darwinism-who-i-XIeTjBbJS_qZXA_c3EknsA#1
Matt Till 