Extinctionof the SocialDarwinismCanard 247Germancapitalism’... ” Insofaras a relativeamountof economiclibertycan be called
capitalism,“... Germancapitalismenjoyedmuchmoreautonomybeforeand afterHitler.
Rather,the reverseof sucha notionwouldbe morenearlytrue:whatultimatelysaved
Germancapitalismwasthe defeatof NationalSocialismin the west” by the much-more-
capitalistAllies,“andthe incorporationof WestGermanyintothe Americansphereof
hegemony.”^93
A German academician shares in the aforementioned assessments. Universität
DüsseldorfeconomichistorianKarlHardachjudgesthatthe Nazisinstituted“a govern-
mentallyguidedeconomywherestatedirectivesinsteadof the lawsof the marketdeter-
minedproductionand consumption.. .”^94
Universityof GlamorganpsychologistLindaDubrow-Marshallexplicatesthe reason
whyanti-capitalistmicromanagementof nominallyprivateproperty,on the partof the
State,wasimportantto the Führerandothercultleaders.“If youcan controlpeople’s
money,.. .” and theirsexuality,you obtain“personaland privatewaysof gainingcontrol
over” the peoplethemselves.^95
For decadesit has beenfashionableto presumethatthe Nazisspoliatedotherson
accountof theirbeingelitistsand classistswhoonlycaredaboutsacrificingotherpeople
to theirownselfishinterests.Therealitywasimmenselydifferent.TheNazissharedin
the modernAmericanprogressives’ opinionthat thosewhosucceedundercapitalismare
selfish,classist,elitistsocialDarwiniststhattrampleoverworkers,endangeredspecies,
andMotherEarth.Thenarrativecontinuesthatthe Nazisprescribedthatgovernment
shouldthereforeenactlawsthatforcethe socialDarwiniancapitalistto subordinatehis
ownintereststo thoseof low-incomeAryans,mammals,andthe wilderness.As Hitler
toldOttoWagenerin Spring1932,“we haveseena constantshiftingbackandforth
betweenreactionand the trueteachingof Christ,betweenthe will of the upperclassesto
subjugateandthe revoltof the masses.. .”^96 Andthe implementationof Nazipolicies
institutedthe U.S.progressives’ aimto maimthe freedomof the businessmanfor the
financialbettermentof the proletariatand otherallegedunderclasses.Hitlerdid precisely
that—he curtailedthe freedomof Jewishbusinessmenfor the financialbettermentof low-
incomeAryans,endangeredspecies,andotherreputedunderclasses.In no mannercon-
ceivingof theirNazicrusadeas the manifestationof elitistcapitalistsocialDarwinism,the
Germansof the 1930sattachedthemselvesto the Nazicauseon the basisthattheybe-
lievedit to be the forcibleeradicationof elitistcapitalistsocialDarwinism.Theythen
accusedJewsof practicingsaidDarwinism.
In short,thosewhotry to incriminatesuchfree-marketproponentsas Spencerand
Sumneras the inspirationfor government-imposedeugenicshaveconcoctedhistorical
narrativesgrosslycontraryto whattranspired.Commensurately,it is unconscionablefor
themto depicteveryone of laissezfaire’s detractorsas necessarilythe enemiesof govern-
ment-imposedeugenics.To classifySpencerand Sumnerwiththeirpoliticalopposites—
governisteugenicistsin the veinof TheodoreRoosevelt,OliverWendellHolmes,George
BernardShaw,and JosephGoebbels—as havingcommonmembershipin a unifiedSocial
Darwinismmovement,is a sham.To the extentthatthe “free-for-all” of capitalistenter-
prisecan be labeledsocialDarwinism,writestraditionalconservativeJonahGoldberg,
“... Nazismis the oppositeof socialDarwinism.” Thesenationalsocialistsbelieved“that
the stateshouldactivelypickwinnersandlosers,andlavishthe winnerswithsocial
benefits,and otherformsof governmentlargesse—exactlyopposite” of thoselaissez-faire
intellectuals“we call socialDarwinists.”^97