From: "Christopher B. Wright" <brennanw-AT-richmond.infi.net>
Subject: Darwin and Fascism
Date: Sun, 7 Feb 1999 17:07:07 -0500


(If this message looks weird in your text mailers, it's because I'm working
in -- ugh -- Windows NT right now. All apologies.)

Lately there has been a few threads, most notably one called "baby food",
talking about a terrible ideology known as "Social Darwinism." I'd like to
take this time to point out that "Social Darwinism" as a political and
economic theory has little or nothing to do with Darwin's theory of the
evolution of the species.

Darwin is vilified for many, many, things, very few of which are his fault.
Most of the truly fascist ideas that came from his theories on evolution
were based more on public misperceptions of his theories than his actual
book _Origin of the Species_.

Darwin's theory of evolution can be boiled down to this: a trait that
increases your chances of survival is more likely to help you survive and
reproduce -- therefore, that trait is more likely to be passed on. This
leads to a species gradually retaining more beneficial traits through time.

So herbivores who just so happen to be able to run faster than their
predators will have an increased chance of survival. Over time, if that
species survives, one will notice that more and more of them are faster than
their predators.

As for those hairless simians that many called "humans", it just so happens
that although they are (a) weaker than many of the other animals, and (b)
tend to be less hardy in extreme environments, and (c) reproduce extremely
slowly, they are able to cooperate with each other and combine their
collective brain powers to kick the shit out of many of their natural
enemies. This has been a very successful survival trait -- so successful
that it seems that it's not needed any more, and some claim it is in fact
becoming less common.

The fact that Darwin's theories have been used to support eugenics, the
"breeding out" of unfavorable people, etc., is unfortunate and has nothing
to do with Darwin himself. His theory is, in fact, quite non-threatening --
it doesn't even really conflict with Kropotkin's theories on Mutual Aid, as
far as I can tell.

As an interesting aside, I read once (and therefore can't substantiate it)
that while Darwin first put forth the theory of evolution, he did not, in
fact, believe that humans evolved at all. Although his theory has been
attacked from many radical Christian groups as claiming that we descended
from apes instead of being created by God, Darwin, a devout Christian
himself, didn't think the Origin of the Species applied to us -- he believed
we were descended from Adam and Eve, created from clay by God.

The irony, as I see it, is astonishing.

By the way, it looks like I'm moving to Durham, NC. Anyone from that realm?

Christopher B. Wright (cwbrenn-AT-ibm.net)
"We are all born originals -- why is it so many of us die copies?"
          Edward Young