Student Question
Compare Social Darwinism and the Gospel of Wealth. Which aligns more with traditional American values?
Quick answer:
Social Darwinism held that only the fittest in society should survive, implying that the rich had no obligation to help the poor. The Gospel of Wealth, on the other hand, emphasized the responsibilities the wealthy had toward those less fortunate than themselves. One could argue that Social Darwinism is more closely aligned with traditional American values.
Social Darwinism was an ideology that took root in the mid-nineteenth century thanks largely to the tireless efforts of the English sociologist Herbert Spencer. Taking his cue from Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, Spencer attempted to apply the great scientist's insights to contemporary society.
In doing so, Spencer came to the conclusion that the law of the jungle applied not just to animals but to people as well. Human society was based on the principle of the survival of the fittest—a term first coined by Spencer—in which the strong should be able to flourish while the weaker specimens were allowed to go to the wall.
In practical terms, this meant that the stronger elements of society, the rich and powerful, had no obligations to ameliorate the conditions of those less fortunate than themselves. Simply put, the poor should be allowed to go to the wall. Any attempts...
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to prevent this from happening, either through government action or private philanthropy, would be to interfere with nature and weaken the species.
Spencer's Social Darwinism found favor in the United States and found its main champion in the American political scientist William Graham Sumner. Despite Sumner's claims to be a scientist, his conclusions seemed to be far from scientific in that they always seemed to coincide with the interests of the rich and privileged, many of whom felt no obligation toward the poor whatsoever.
Though Sumner didn't intend his work to be used in such a way, it provided the moneyed elite of the Gilded Age with an intellectual foundation for greed and rampant inequality.
By no means all wealthy Americans were enamored of Social Darwinism. One of the richest men in America, the Scottish-born steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, most certainly wasn't. Instead, he preached the doctrine of the Gospel of Wealth, about which he wrote an article in 1889.
According to Carnegie, rich people like himself had a moral obligation to help the poor. Far from being allowed to go to the wall as Social Darwinists recommended, they should be helped to make something of themselves, to lead dignified, independent lives.
The Gospel of Wealth stipulated that the wealthy, instead of hoarding their vast riches, should use it to benefit society through acts of private philanthropy. Carnegie put his money where his mouth was, giving away over ninety percent of his fortune during his lifetime. He endowed a number of institutions, most notably libraries, which were established to provide the poor with the knowledge and the skills to help them take their place in society.
On the whole, one could say that Social Darwinism is more closely aligned to American values in that it captures the spirit of unfettered free enterprise that built the nation's economy. One could say that Social Darwinism, in valorizing wealth as it did, helped to spawn the American Dream, a national ideal that continues to exert a powerful hold upon the imagination of millions.