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Social Darwinism, Herbert SpenCer
Copying Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection in plant and animal development, many people in the 19th century tried to apply that to HUMANS. Many ‘pseudo-scientists’ believed that the reason that white European Christians dominated the Globe could be explained by these ideas. "This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called 'natural selection', or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.“ Herbert Spencer
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“scientific” racism Herbert Spenser was an English Philosopher who embraced Darwinian theory and took it to include all aspects of human existence which he thought progressed in the same way. He called this ‘survival of the fittest’ ,and this led to the study of racial characteristics in a pseudo- scientific way, subscribing to the theory of polygenism.
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“scientific” racism Polygenism is the idea that humans are in fact, different species, and the physical differentiation of “races” is indicative of this.
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Gospel of Wealth, philanthropy
Andrew Carnegie-one of the great financial giants of his era, published an essay titled The Gospel of Wealth in 1889, in which he argued that the accumulation of wealth was beneficial to society and the government should take no action to impede it. Carnegie believed the rich were trustees of their money, holding it until proper public uses could be discovered. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Carnegie practiced what he preached and spent his last years giving away his vast fortune. One of his many charitable ventures was the funding of more than 2,800 public libraries. Carnegie wrote, “The man who dies rich dies disgraced." Gospel of Wealth- The Gospel of Wealth, or sometimes the Gospel of Success, was the term for a notion promoted by many successful businessmen that their massive wealth was a social benefit for all. The Gospel of Wealth was a softer and more palatable version of Social Darwinism. The advocates linked wealth with responsibility, arguing that those with great material possessions had equally great obligations to society.
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