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Revision as of 14:55, 25 February 2013
About
Social Darwinism is an elitist ideology which asserts that individuals should work only for their own interests, and that society and government should reflect this idea by following the dictates of natural selection, thus maximizing the pace of human evolution. It generally advocates doing as little as possible to aid those who "fail" economically, even to the point of allowing them to die, while helping those who "succeed" by rewarding them still further, thus encouraging the propagation of "successful" genes.
It is consistent in many ways with the goals of eugenics, although eugenics might suggest (for example) offering affordable gene counseling and therapy to poor people, while social Darwinism would hold that natural selection should be allowed to do its work unassisted.
It is antithetical to the idea of socialism, which advocates universal care and remediation of economic disparities.
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