Hunting Down Social Darwinism Will This Canard Go Extinct

The EquivocationInfectsthe Intellectuals 65

mentintervention.. .” ThissuggeststhatDr. Mooreneedsto takea closerlookat
Holmes’s rulingsinLochnerv. NewYork,U.S.v. StandardOil, and especiallyBuckv. Bell. I
wouldcertainlyidentifythoseas formsof governmentintervention.
In contrastto Moore,somegovernistsloudlypraiseHolmesfor hisLochnerdissentand
cite it as evidencethat Holmeswasan opponentto socialDarwinism.“How,” ThomasC.
Leonardrhetoricallyquestions,“doesan opponentof SpencerianSocialDarwinismcome
to endorsecoercivesterilizationof the unfit?” As “a matterof history,” Leonardunder-
stands,“thereis no contradictionin the viewsthatunderwrite” Holmes’s respective
opinionsinLochnerandBuck. It is not simplythatthe statutesbeingcontestedin both
cases“proposedto subordinateindividualrightsto a putativelygreatersocialgood.
Progressivethought,it turnsout,did not haveto travelfar whenit movedfromlabor
statutesconceivedas protectingsocietyfromSocialDarwinismto eugeniclegislation
conceivedas protectingsocietyfrompersonsdeemedbiologicallyunfit.... In fact,in the
ProgressiveEra especially,eugenictreatmentof thosedeemedbiologicallyinferiorwas
promotedas a meansto the end of upliftingthe industrialpoor”^84 (emphasisLeonard’s).

SomeEnlightenmentfor ThoseWhoMistakeNazismfor Rationality

Thereis anothercaseof someonewithoutan obviouspoliticalvendettarepeatingthe
myththatfree-marketadvocatesweresocialDarwinistswhoinspiredNaziism.Thiscase
is particularlymaddeningfor me. Thismythis statedby AbrahamFoxman(b. 1940)—a
Holocaustsurvivor^85 whoservesas the Anti-DefamationLeague’s nationaldirector.He
correctlysupportsU.S.publicationofMeinKampfso that peoplecan readit and gainsome
insightas to whatexactlythatwretchedmanifestoespouses.Sadly,the Anti-Defamation
activistunknowinglydefamesmanyinnocentpeoplewhenhe blamesthinkersin the
Enlightenmenttradition—HerbertSpencer implicitly amongthem—for fueling Nazi
ideology.In hisMeinKampfintroduction,Foxmanwritesthatthe “gluethatHitlerused”
to holdNaziismtogether

was an extremeformof race-orientedsocialDarwinism.... The modern“science” of race

had evolvedwiththe Enlightenmentwhenthe Aristoteliandistinctionsbetweenthe “cul-

tured” andthe “barbaric” raceswererevived.... By positingthatcertainraceswere

inherently“primitive,” whitemenof the Enlightenmentwereableto justifyboththeir

continuedtolerationof blackslaveryandtheirimperialistdesignson placessuchas

Africa....

Racialtheoriesbecameincreasinglyradicalas theyincorporatedaspectsof Darwinism,

whichsweptthe Westernworldin the mid-to late 1800s.Appliedto race,the ideasof

evolutionand “survivalof the fittest” turnedthe historyof humanity... intoa storyof

racialconflict.Whencoupledwithnationalism,racial(social)Darwinismled to the devel-

opmentof nationalarchetypes;thuseducatedpeopleat the end of the nineteenthcentury

couldseriouslyclaimthatthe distinctiveculturalcharacteristicsof the English,French,

Americans,and Germanswerebiological.Eugenicsmovementswiththe goalof improv-

ing nationalor racial“stock” throughselectivebreeding(whichlaterbecameinextricably

linkedwiththe Naziregimein popularperception)arosein England,Scandinavia,and

the UnitedSates.^86

My heartsinksthat the Enlightenmentmovementis hereso crudelyimplicatedfor laying
the philosophicfoundationfor totalitarianNaziism.HerbertSpencer,it willbe recalled,
was one of the foremostintellectualsat the tail end of the Enlightenmentperiod.Thiswas
the periodthatDoronSwade,assistantdirectorandheadof Collectionsat the Science
Museumin London,aptlyidentifiesas the apexof the “age of reason,” as it “witnesseda
fermentof scientificinvention.. .”^87