Social Darwinism in American Politics Essay -- Social Darwinism Essays

knowledgeableness amicable Darwinism is a quasi-philosophical, quasi-religious, quasi-sociological view that came from the mind of Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher in the nineteenth century. It did non execute wide acceptance in England or Europe, further flourished in this country, as is true of many ideologies, religions, and philosophies. A trustworthy summary of cordial Darwinism is by JohnsonIn these years, when Darwins Origin of Species, popularized by Herbert Spencer as "the selection of the fittest, " and applied to races as well as species in a vulgarized form, Social Darwinism, the coming Christian triumph was presented as an Anglo-Saxon Protestant one.Social Darwinism is by no means dead, for vestiges of it can be found in the present.What Is "Darwinism?"Charles Darwin was an English biologist who, along with a few others, developed a biological concept that has been vulgarized and attacked from the moment his major work, The Origin of Species , was published in 1859. An accurate and brief picture of his contribution to biology is probably his proclaim Evolution is transmission with adaptation. Darwin motto in his epochal trip alongside the ship The Beagle in the 1830s what many others had seen but did not draw the veracious conclusions. In the Galapagos Islands, off South America, Darwin noted that very large tortoises differed middling from one island to the next. He noted also that finches also differed from one geographic location to the next. Some had succincter beaks, effective for cracking seeds. Some had long, sharp beaks, useful for prying insects out of their hiding places. Some had long tail feathers, others short ones.Darwin took copious notes, captured insects and animals and selected plants. These he preserved in jars and took them back to England where he opinion about the implications of what he had seen. for almost three decades. What occurred to him was a simple conceit animals, plants, insects, fishes, etc., which were obviously related differed slightly and these differences seemed to be tied in with their cap competency to survive. Differences, which he called "adaptations," were often related to geographical factors. He also saw something similar in fossils certainly some fish, sea shells, etc., that died and were covered up by sand, gradually turned to stone, and were caught forever in fossil form. in that respect seemed to b... ...le for a "net" that would not allow any individual to give into abject poverty, homelessness on a wide scale, hunger or destitution. However, in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan was elected on a platform which declared that late mess hall policies were responsible for poverty, crime, and all other social problems. Government, Reagan kept on repeating, was not any part of a solution to the problem. Government was the problem. Therefore, a good many policies based upon the "net" concept were weakened or plain eliminated .It is not accurate to say that 19th century Social Darwinism, "Reaganomics," New Deal philosophy or its manifestation in the economic policies of chairman Clinton is now dominant. A fair assessment is that all of these ideologies can be found indoors our society--as public policy and as belief structure. The ability of conflicting, incompatible social philosophies to live side by side, even within the same person, (cite) explains why there is so much unresolved conflict, why it is difficult for a given bit of social policy to achieve permanence. why, as many have pointed out, there is considerable poverty in the wealthiest society in the world.