Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism refers to a set of ideologies constructed around a flawed understanding of Charles Darwin's theory of Evolution. Social Darwinism was created as a means of justifying the social order which emerged in Victorian England and in particular the position of the wealthy captains of industry. Social Darwinism can be summarized as "survival of the fittest", that society works at its best when the "strong" are allowed to thrive and rise above the "weak". In the Victorian case, this meant that Industrialists were the apexes of humanity, smart, ambitious, creative and so forth while poor people (in particular colonial subjects) were lazy, incompetent, stupid and fit for exploitation. More extreme cases would emerge calling of active removal of "unfit" people from the gene pool, most notably be the policies employed by Nazi Germany.

Flaws

Leaving aside the contempt for human life inherent in this system. Among social Darwinism's flaws is the failure to understand the nature of evolutionary theory. The theory of evolution is a simple observation of the natural world. It does not make any judgement that because this is the state of affair in nature that this is right. Darwin spoke poorly of various acts of cruelty exploitation of local populations by his contemporaries in the British Empire.

Another is the fact that in terms of evolution, fitness is not some universal construct of value of value but rather how well something is adapted to its environment. A White Rhino is ill suited to survive on the arctic tundra and a polar bear is poorly suited to survive on the African Savannah.

Social Darwinism in Science Fiction

Social Darwinist tenancies often comes up in science fiction as an ideology held by villains.

• In Legend of the Galactic Heroes, The First Emperor of the Galactic Empire engaged in a series of Social Darwinian and Eugenics policies, resulting in the Death of several billion people

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