Evolution and Social Class

There is one more obvious type of inequality supported by the concept of evolution that I would like to discuss. I think I may be rather brief with my remarks because the connection between evolutionary theory and social class is more well known and can be summed up in two words: Social Darwinism.

Quite simply, Social Darwinism is the idea that class inequalities exist because of natural differences in characteristics such as intelligence and discipline. Thus, class inequalities are right and just, and to attempt to question income disparities is to subvert the natural order by which the strong survive and the weak perish. In fact, some have argued that charity is dangerous as it prevents the "survival of the fittest" mechanism from weeding out the weaker human beings.

Now, of course, Social Darwinism does not follow from the principles of actual Darwinism for multiple reasons (for example, the definition of "fitness" in the Darwinian scheme being more tautologically definied as the ability to survive - i.e. reproduce - and containing no implications about any other sort of "value"). However, this does not mean, as some people suggest, that Social Darwinism is simply a distortion or perversion of a valid scientific concept. For one thing, Social Darwinism is certainly in line with other paradigms of evolution that have held more sway over general consciousness, including among contemporary scientists.

More importantly - and this is the point I would like to emphasize with this post - the Ideology of Progress, of which evolutionary theories are a component, is, at its essence, a mechanism of naturalizing inequalities of all forms and thus upholding the social order. This fact, along with the relationship between evolutionary theory and inequalities of race, gender, and sexuality, all seem to suggest that Social Darwinism is less a distortion of the concept of evolution, and more one specific manifestation of the general inherent nature of evolutionary theory and the Ideology of Progress.

Social Darwinism reveals the true nature of evolutionary theory more than it distorts it.