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Darwin And The Victrian Era Essay Research (стр. 2 из 2)

A new found appreciation for the sciences created a stirring within the German soul, already awakened by an extreme form of patriotism. Later nineteenth century nationalism, notably in Germany, justified in a variety of ways this concept that one given nation is the best, the highest, and thus should see that the other nations are like it, or properly submissive to it. Racists advanced the concept of a nation as an organic unity, members of which share a common genetic inheritance (supplemented, but only replaced by a cultural inheritance) which makes them superior to other “breeds of men.” There were romantic doctrines of the uniqueness and goodness of this organic growth of a nation. “Imperial Germany” was seen as “a ‘national organism’ determined to prove itself the fittest” (Semmel 23). Idealistic doctrines of the soul or spirit also nourished this very German nationalism.

Figures are varied, the scientific theory of Darwin, the many different social Darwinian theorists, and as well, the very important writings of Nietzsche, who was likewise influenced by Darwin. Friedrich Nietzsche despised Christianity for its acceptance of the “weak” and “underprivileged”. He condemned the Christian virtues of compassion, charity, and care for the weak. In politics he condemned the doctrine of equality and brotherhood, democracy, and socialism. He called the Germans degenerate racially desiring purification of the German people. He glorified the ruthless vitality of the renaissance prince, of the Prussian officer, of the blond beast, the superman. Within Europe he saw “two opposing parties, the socialist and the national– or whatever they may be called in the different European countries” (Semmel 21). Nietzsche was obviously on the side of the “nationalist,” the foremost fit. Life, according, to Nietzsche, was evolutionary war. There is always war, only its form changes. As a predatory animal lives at the expense of other animals, so do nations live at the expense of other nations. What it wants to enjoy it must take away from others. If it wants to enjoy safety it must either exterminate its neighbor or neutralize them. Compassion, charity, truthfulness, loyalty to obligations, all the Christian virtues are inventions of cowards and weaklings. Nature does not know them; the strong man does not observe them (Irvine 234-235).

Racist nationalism, after Nietzsche, yet not unconnected, would reach its extreme under Hitler in the twentieth century. But no nation was without its Darwinian nationalist prophet. The English too justified their imperialism as the work of a Chosen People. Rudyard Kipling (1865–1956) was a writer who exemplified this attitude, as did Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902), a South African premier. Victor Berard, a French observer of the late nineteenth early twentieth century, speaks of British feelings towards imperialism: “Nature shows us that in this world-struggle the strongest only will survive and flourish at the expense of the weaker neighbor. The English people are steeped in this doctrine, which they believe to be in strict keeping with the latest discoveries of science. It is this doctrine which has really created the Imperialist frame of mind in the nation .” (Semmel 29). Others similarly followed this ideology. The French were never neglectful of their “mission civilisatrice,” in which the imperialists inclined to emphasize it as a rational, eighteenth century thing. Charles Maurras (1868-1952) may serve as a specimen here. Americans had their “Manifest Destiny”– not crudely aggressive, perhaps, except toward the Native Americans and the Mexicans, but definitely a nationalist gospel. The Russians justified their imperialism upon racial foundation– their race obviously being the furthest fit in their eyes They raped other Slavic countries in the name of Panslavism, which amounted to sheer imperialism (Semmel 56-57).

Unfortunately, other European powers, namely England and Germany used a combination of Darwinism and religion to widen their hold on overseas countries, even though the churches did not desire this at all. The Roman Catholic Church condemned Social Darwinism and some parts of Darwin’s evolutionary scheme as modernistic misconceptions. The church started to speak up against slavery and forced colonialism. It sought to impress on employers the need for better wages and better relations with their workers. The Salvation Army and the Methodists tried to aid the poor. Among the Protestants, there was a strong resistance, not all from fundamenta-lists, to the whole concept of man as an animal with an evolutionary background. Only gradually did most Christians arrive at some sort of compromise with theories of organic evolution. Some accepted Darwinian and other theories as scientific hypotheses which had no claim to be true in the theological sense; others held to the con-cept that man’s animal nature was fully subject to evolution, while his soul was above and beyond such a process. Others saw Darwin as a “scientific” alternative. To them there existed both a “creation model” and the “evolution model”. However, there still remained a large portion of Protestants who rejected every portion of the Darwinian theory of evolution (Appleman 362-369).

Darwin formulated a theory of evolution. It was not original in many aspects. Presently, many aspects do not stand up to rigorous scientific analysis, though portions remain valid. What in fact it created was something that Darwin never wished, nor expected. It became a cause for new ideologies and concepts; the Marxist tried to justify their theory upon Darwin’s principles. The militarists and expansionists wel-comed the social interpretation of Darwinism, because it made the policy of cruel imperialism a natural act.

But, most of all, businessmen were overjoyed by its implications, for they could go on as they pleased without hindrance from Darwinian influenced laissez-faire government. Unfortunately, the poor and the weak suffered. The reformers were blocked from making any significant inroad into reducing poverty and injustice. The non-Anglo people suffered, for they were doomed either to be exterminated or segregated. Unfortunately, Darwinism gave rise to extremism and secularism.

The Victorians, despite the furor caused over this doctrine, re-mained composed. They weathered the storm in an age of conflicting views brought along by a yearning for progress. Darwin’s theories were both challenged and accepted, yet who could have known what grave misfortunes, for example Nazism and senseless imperialism, would result from Darwin’s theories throughout the generations to come.