From: raghu -1 On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 7:20 PM, David B. Shemano <[email protected]> wrote: > Social Darwinism (and racism) was not solely, even primarily, a right-wing, > fascist viewpoint in the 100 years after Darwin published (unless you define > racism as right-wing and fascist, which I reject). Social Darwinism (and > racism) was pervasive in the most "progressive" ideological streams until > WWII, and when the historical memory of WWII finally wears off, I am > reasonably sure it will make a big comeback again in the minds of > progressives. >
Anyone care to comment on this? David does raise an important question: why should the right-wing be exclusively accused of social-Darwinism? ^^^^^ CB: David's claim seems to be factually off. The main and various political expressions of social darwinism are claiming that ruling classes are a natural elite and support of racism, male supremacy ,colonialism, and imperialism. These are all rightwing positions, especially as time moves on. There may have been some "progressives" who subscribed to a form of social darwinism in the 1800's, but with the passage of time, not so. Do you have any particular left social darwinists in mind ? In the years before WWII, the most progressive ideological streams were almost defined by their opposition to racism, colonialism and imperialism _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
