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The Social Darwinist: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"It's really simple. You bring two sides together. They fight. [[A Million Is a Statistic|A lot of them die]]. But those who survive are stronger, faster and better."''|'''Justin''', ''[[Babylon 5]]''}}
[[The Social Darwinist/Laconic|The Social Darwinist]] is someone who believes that the Darwinist theory of evolution -- i.e. "survival of the fittest" to grossly oversimplify it -- applies to people, and sometimes entire societies or nations. To the Social Darwinist, all life is a struggle for survival in which the strongest naturally prosper at the expense of the weak -- and it is ''[[Might Makes Right|right]]'', and ''natural'' that they should do so, because that's just the way things are, and/or natural law is [[Above Good and Evil]].
If they do talk about evolution, they are very likely to talk about [[Evolutionary Levels]] and [[Goal-Oriented Evolution]] rather than Darwin's actual theory.
Fictional [[Social Darwinist|Social Darwinists]] generally come in four major flavors:
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* Emperor Charles zi Britannia in ''[[Code Geass]]'' has this philosophy -- though it applies at its most ruthless to his children, as if any are weak, they deserve to die. The protagonist, a deposed prince of the empire, directly opposes this attitude as it's what cost him his mother and crippled his little sister -- while Charles did nothing. {{spoiler|Subverted, as this was all a facade by the emperor himself.}}
* Vicious of ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' shows shades of this, particularly in his attitude towards those who lose their ruthless side. Notably, he assassinates his former [[Mentor]] Mao Yenrai for attempting to make peace with another [[The Syndicate|Syndicate]], (then dismissively describes him as "a beast who lost his fangs") denounces the Elders of the Red Dragon as "corpses that can't fight," and demands to know why Spike Spiegel, his personal and romantic rival, survived his exile if he's no longer as cold-blooded and ruthless as Vicious.
* In ''[[Darker Than Black]]'', Amber's organization "Evening Primrose" is sort of the Contractor [[La Résistance|Resistance movement]], and while it's not clear to what extent Amber herself has this viewpoint, her [[Yandere (disambiguation)|obsessive]] follower Maki definitely does, and in one scene, he actually refers to Contractors as something like a [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|"master race"]]. The [[Interquel]] villain Harvest is also an insane social darwinist, and has several lines about "the next stage in evolution".
* Light Yagami in ''[[Death Note]]'' develops from a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] into this trope, and he [[Villain Protagonist|happens to be the protagonist]]. He believes that by using the Death Note to pick off criminals and the unpleasant, he can make the world consist of good people only. As he puts it, if Kira (his mass-murdering alter ego) is caught, then he's evil; if he wins and rules the world, he's righteous.
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', there are [[Big Bad|Father and his Homunculi]], and [[Sociopathic Soldier|Kimblee]], who is an ideological and philosophical Social Darwinist. He doesn't believe that weak people should be automatically killed (though he ''does'' enjoy blowing up people regardless of how helpless they are), but he believes violence is the only way to solve philosophical disputes; whoever is alive at the end of the day was right. There are also non-villain examples. Olivier Mira Armstrong, for instance, is pretty much [[Four-Star Badass|General Badass]] and leads the Briggs fortress border troops, who are the most [[Badass]] soldiers in all Amestris. Her credo is "survival of the fittest", which she applied to everyone, including ''herself''.
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* Basically every bad guy in ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' is either this or just a raving psycho. It's a [[Mad Max]] style world after all.
* Inverted in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'', where {{spoiler|both Lordgenome and the Anti-Spirals purposefully try to force the human race not to evolve too much, and it is the ''heroes'' who ascribe to a more idealistic combination of [[Evolutionary Levels|Darwinism (with Spiral Energy being the power behind evolution)]] and [[The Power of Friendship]]}}.
* Kiria from ''[[Rosario
* Vegeta from ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' believes the Saiyan race is the most powerful in the universe and that Earthlings are weak and inferior to them. His transition to Majin Vegeta is largely because this belief, saying (in the English dub) "It's survival of the fittest. The strong will survive, and the weak shall perish!" Even Goku pointing out that during their battle they may have inadvertently revived Majin Buu is dismissed by Vegeta, saying (though he hardly believes it himself) that the two of them have evolved far beyond even Kaioshin's expectations to the point that Majin Buu is not a concern anymore.
* [[Took a Level in Jerkass|After taking a level in jerkass]] and pursuing apostles on his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge|quest for revenge]], Guts in ''[[Berserk]]'' pretty much adopts this as his philosophy, saying that people who are to weak to survive in the [[Crapsack World]] that they live in deserve to die.
* Rudolf von Goldenbaum from ''[[Legend of Galactic Heroes]]'' firmly believes in this trope. One of the most infamous laws he passed after he established the Galactic Empire was the so-called "Inferior Genes Exclusion Law", which essentially involved the killing of people deemed to possess "inferior genes".
* [[The Evil Prince|Gihren Zabi]] of ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]''. He believes that the strong should rule and the weak should simply get out of the way. This idea governs most of his actions throughout the show, and lead to his ultimately [[Self-Made Orphan|assassinating]] his father and seizing control of Zeon for himself.
* In ''[[Saint Beast]]'', Zeus believes that angels who are not "beautiful and strong" are not fit to serve him.
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== Comic Books ==
* [[Jack Chick]] [[You Fail Biology Forever|assumes that this is what the Theory of Evolution actually teaches]].
* There are several such characters in the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' works:
** Magneto has some moments of social darwinism, calling mutants ''Homo sapiens superior'' (or the even less accurate ''Homo superior'', implying mutants are a separate species entirely).
** Apocalypse goes farther; besides vaunting the superiority of mutants, he believes in encouraging conflict to weed out the weak. Meanwhile, he isn't concerned for his own safety, assuming that he is the [[Evolutionary Levels|pinnacle of evolution]]. There are times, both in the main [[Marvel Universe]] and alternate timelines, when Apocalypse gets defeated and he's asked what makes ''him'' fit to survive. Sometimes, he seems entirely willing to die due to having been proved "unfit" under his own philosophy. [[Status Quo Is God|It never lasts, of course, because he's one of the X-Men's iconic villains so he has to come back to face them again]].
** Mr. Sinister originated as a 19th-century eugenicist.
** Professor Xavier in ''X-Men Noir'' is an actual psychiatrist, and as such his spin on this is unique: he believes sociopaths are the next stage in human behavioral evolution. Chief of Detectives Eric Magnus, meanwhile, believes the criminal element is hereditary and genetic -- and has to be contained or eliminated for the good of society. Emma Frost, an old student of Xavier's, combines the two ideas as warden at Genosha Bay, but also feels sociopathy is communicable.
* [[Captain America (comics)|The Red Skull]] abandoned Nazism, but he still believes in this.
* Venus Bluegenes in ''[[Rogue Trooper]]'' fits this trope in her initial appearance. She believes that GIs are inherently superior to humans, and {{spoiler|killed the rest of her crew as she thought them inferior.}}
* {{spoiler|Niles Caulder}} turns out to be this at the end of Grant Morrison's ''[[Doom Patrol]]'' run. In fact, it's revealed at the end that he's planning a giant worldwide cataclysm that will enable the human race to emerge stronger as a result.
* The Norwegian cult comic ''The Great Four: When the Dead Awaken'' features a social darwinist [[Big Bad]] who is planning to start a new world war using [[Steampunk]] gasoline technology. When the heroes arrive to stop him, he offers them an ultimatum: If he defeats them, [[Defeat Means Friendship|they will join him in his conquest]]. If they defeat him, he has a self-destruct ready to destroy his [[Supervillain Lair]] and will let them pull the switch, because if he was weak enough to be defeated his works weren't worth anything anyway. {{spoiler|He actually seems content with losing until the heroes decide to leave the lair intact so his [[It Makes Sense in Context|gasoline-driven undead minions]] can continue to 'live'.}}
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{{quote|"There is no room in this whole world for imperfection. What a pity my father didn't live to see me become strong, to see me dispose of the weak and imperfect of the world, whom he detested. He would have admired me for what I am going to do."}}
* In ''[[Wall Street]]'', Gordon Gekko's philosophy is pretty much Social Darwinism of the economic kind. Several of his quotes are "It's a Zero Sum game<ref>using this term shows that he [[You Fail Economics Forever|fails economics forever]]</ref>—somebody wins, somebody loses" or "In my book you either do it right or you get eliminated". His entire "Greed is good" speech is of Social Darwinist nature. In the first movie, he lost the game, {{spoiler|but in the second movie, he won the game and now is a top dog within the British economy}}.
* This is [[Star Wars|the Sith]] in a nutshell.
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{{quote|'''Hrsh-Hgn''': Intelligence is humanity's prime survival trait, therefore it is as well that those who don't show it be weeded out.}}
* Captain Wolf Larson of ''The Sea Wolf''.
* ''[[Mortal Engines]]'' has ''Municipal'' Darwinism, a system by which the inhabitants of mobile cities justify eating smaller mobile cities, stripping them down for spares, and selling their inhabitants into slavery. Large cities eat small cities, cities eat towns, towns eat suburbs (all of the above are gigantic and mechanized). Everyone picks on "static" settlements, which form the Anti-Traction League and fight back with hordes of airships and suicide bombers. This is not a sustainable "ecology" since there isn't much in the way of outside resources coming into the system. The real ecosystem takes energy from the sun via plants, the cities don't do much of that.
* Back in the days when there were more than two of them, the [[Star Wars|Sith]] were pretty Social Darwinist. Actually, the Rule of Two was the same logic, as [[Klingon Promotion|the Master could expect innumerable assassination attempts by the apprentice, for only by taking power could a Sith Lord prove himself a Master]].
* The Mesan Alignment in the ''[[Honor Harrington]]'' stories believe that their superior genetics mean that they should be running the galaxy.
* In ''Destiny's Star'' by Elizabeth Vaughan, the protagonists are [[Trapped in Another World]], where the inhabitants are a [[Proud Warrior Race]]. They do not have doctors or healers, as anyone who gets sick or injured are immediately killed. The heroine gets a broken leg, but survives by persuading them to wait until she completes a sacred duty first.
* Though one can't expect bunnies to have heard of Charles Darwin, officers of Efrafa's Owsla in ''[[Watership Down]]'' are given full mating privileges, suggesting that Woundwort wants only his strongest bucks to father the kittens in his warren. Subverted by Nature itself, as many of the badly-overcrowded does fail to sustain the pregnancies that result.
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** The title character in the episode "Deathwalker" was yet another case of this.
** Another episode had Ivanova trying to negotiate with the Lumati, an alien [[Planet of Hats]] species who strongly believe in Social Darwinism; when they discover Downbelow, the "slum" of the station, they approve the "segregation" of "unwanted" elements and agree to grant the desired treaty as well as implement the same system on the Lumati homeworld. When Ivanova tries to correct their misinterpretation, they gently chastise her for her unnecessary modesty.
* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''Survival'' brutally deconstructs this trope / worldview in several ways, most notably by turning the Master into an essentially Social Darwinist villain -- all the other characters are exploited for his own survival. He manipulates [[The Dragon]], Midge, by playing on Social Darwinist beliefs -- a specific comment on [[Margaret Thatcher|Thatcherism]] in Eighties Britain. There's also a bullet-headed Territorial Army type who's a determined believer in this type of philosophy, only to completely fall apart when he finds himself actually thrown into an environment where he has to actually practice it. It doesn't end well for him. {{spoiler|Ultimately, the 'weaker' characters who work together and are able to overcome their purely individualistic / survivalist instincts do okay, the 'stronger' ones who can't and fall into this trope die.}}
* ''[[Torchwood]]: Children of Earth''.
{{quote|'''Denise''': And now the time has come to choose [the children which are to be given over to the 456] and if we can't identify the lowest-achieving 10 per cent of this country's children, then what are the league tables for?}}
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== Videogames ==
* Andrew Ryan from ''[[Bioshock]]'' has been ([[Did Not Do the Research|inaccurately]]) accused of being this, what with his version of [[Atlas Shrugged|Ayn Rand's Objectivism]]. He even builds an underwater utopia so that the weak do not keep the strong down. Of course, someone still has to scrub the toilets in Rapture; even if Ryan brought down only the best and the brightest people that fit in with his ideology, people who were once captains of industry back on land were no better than average there, and were disgruntled when they had to work menial jobs that someone's gotta do. On the other hand, Andrew Ryan had a pretty broad view of "strong." For example, he met one of his best friends, Bill McDonough, when the man was installing the plumbing in Ryan's apartment. Ryan had only paid for tin pipes, but McDonough was using copper ones (paying the difference out of his own pocket), because "no one bails water out of privies made by Bill McDonough." The next day, Ryan hired him as his general contractor, and made sure to bring him down to Rapture when the city was built.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VII]] [[Dirge of Cerberus]]'', Weiss the Immaculate announces that he will be slaughtering about half the population to "cleanse the world."
* The ''[[City of Heroes]]''' main bad guy, Lord Recluse, has founded his entire evil organization on Social Darwinism... to the point where he actively encourages every faction to fight against every other faction and backstab each other freely. It's a wonder his plans for world conquest go anywhere when all the bad guys are busy killing ''each other'' off instead of fighting the ''heroes''.<ref>This may have been inspired by the Nazis, who recommended [[Klingon Promotion|Klingon Promotions]] and frequently assigned the same task to two or more officials to see who got it done first, promoting infighting. This did not help in making [[The Trains Run On Time]].</ref> This does explain why the majority of your enemies in ''City of Villains'' are not, in fact, heroes. It should be noted that that while Recluse adheres to Survival of the Fittest, he doesn't let it consume his organization. Anarchy and insubordination are stamped out pretty quickly if they interfere with his plans -- hell, one of the few things Villains in his city can't do without restraint is attack civilians. Who else is going to pay Recluse his taxes?
* Kane from ''[[Command
* Mortimer McMire, [[The Hero]]'s rival in ''Commander Keen'' games, believes that he is the most intelligent being in the universe and that gives him the right to wipe out all the lesser beings. [[You Fail the IQ Test|His IQ is]] [[Improbably High IQ|315]]; Keen has an IQ of 314. Mr. McMire believes Keen can die with the rest, simply because his IQ is ''one point too short''.
* The Omar from ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War|Deus Ex Invisible War]]''. They're a [[Hive Mind]] of transhuman cyborgs that consider themselves the future of the human race and plan to replace humanity the old-fashioned way: Wait and let their evolutionary superiority speak for itself. {{spoiler|In three of the endings, the Omar see themselves either replaced by the Helios system or exterminated by the Templars or Illuminati -- they're vindicated in the fourth ending if all three conspiracies are defeated, as humanity drives itself to extinction and leaves them to inherit the Earth}}.
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** Asura in ''[[Strange Journey]]'' believes that civilization itself is a failed concept that takes man away from his "natural" state, and that only in barbarism can humans live properly. His method for creating the "proper" world is the [[Hate Plague|Delphinus Parasite]], which erases civilized impulses and reduces victims to snarling violence.
* Luca Blight from ''[[Suikoden II]]'' is a particularly extreme and sadistic example.
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' demonstrates how Sith work like this when you enter the academy on Korriban. One does wonder how the hell their system of backstabbery and "every man for himself" philosophy manages to outnumber and overwhelm the Jedi, who co-operate towards a common cause and don't kill half of ''their own people''. It ''is'' mentioned that the Sith will always fail sooner or later because of this, but it's never actually shown in the game. The sequel revisits the academy and shows what happens when you have a bunch of [[Drunk on the Dark Side]] [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]] without any strong leadership to guide them: a ''very'' empty academy.
* Also in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'', your [[Sink or Swim Mentor]] Kreia spends a fair bit of time unleashing a variety of threats on you so that you have to either strengthen to deal with them or die.
** If you go out of your way to help people you meet in sidequests, she criticizes you, saying that you're robbing them of the chance to overcome obstacles by themselves.
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* General Gismor of ''[[Drakengard]] 2'', who hides it behind a facade of [[Knight Templar|Knight Templarism]].
* Morrigan of ''[[Dragon Age]]'' ''Origins'', who takes it to [[Stupid Evil]] levels at times.
* Khamal Rex from ''[[Universe At War]]'' feels that if any species couldn't keep themselves from getting wiped out by the Hierarchy, then they didn't deserve to live in the first place.
* The Lugovalian Empire from ''[[Infinite Space]]'' more or less works in this way, as seen with the throne succession. Apparently, this mindset even works on its citizens, given how strong they are.
* Charadon, leader of the [[Raised by Wolves|Doviello]], leads a pack of wolves to ravage his own family's village in order to find the strongest and fiercest members of his tribe (the survivors who fight off the wolves). He and the Doviello as a whole are Social Darwinists, though Mahala downplays this.
* Depending on the route and your affiliation in ''[[Armored Core]]'', Jack-O may be the Protagonist or Antagonist. Regardless of which one, you will learn that Ravens who fail to live up to his expectations die a lot sooner than Alliance Ravens.
* Vulpes Inculta of ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'' claims that the reason main reason he butchered or enslaved nearly the entire town of [[Wretched Hive|Nipton]] is because they were too weak to prevent it, and therefore deserved it. If you decide to kill him, and establish that he was weak as well, his allies will send assassins after you. Guess that "Survival of the Fittest" argument only is applicable when it's convenient to them.<br /><br />Legate Lanius, [[The Dragon]] of Caesar, is this to a much more brutal extent. If he rules the Legion and wins the Battle of Hoover Dam, he makes Vegas into a twisted [[Warrior Heaven]] where he puts the world to the sword. In his mind, violence will set the world free, breaking the weak and letting the strong truly thrive.
* Bass from ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' believes he ''alone'' is the most powerful robot in the world.
* The [[Player Character]] from ''[[EVO the Search For Eden]]'', as well as the [[Aesop]].
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** It's even claimed that if another civilization was powerful enough to have defeated the Prothean Empire, they would have willingly subjugated themselves, because obviously that civilization would have been superior. How true this is is very much open for debate, as it never happened until the Reapers came and wiped them out.
** The Reapers are also this to an extent in that they like strong races because strong races make strong Reapers. Lesser races are still useful... until they're not.
** Warlord Okeer from ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' also has elements of this. He's a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|krogan]] scientist, a member of a species that's been subjected to a genetic weapon that makes only one in every thousand births viable. He thinks ''this is still too many'', as every krogan baby is then "coddled" and viewed as precious when they should be testing their mettle as warriors.
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== Web Originals ==
* The RP ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' derives its name from this. Of course, in the games, only one student is allowed to survive, making the use of the term pretty much literal. Characters such as [[Big Bad|Danya]], [[The Dragon|Steve Wilson]], and V3 participant Adam Reeves exhibit Social Darwinist tendencies. Considering that the first two organised and put into execution the program, that's pretty much a given.
* The three chairmen in ''[[Strange Little Band]]'' fit this trope. This influences the way they run Triptych.
* ''[[Theatrica]]''
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* Sparta. Eugenics was already practiced (before the advent of biological science) by leaving defective and sick babies to die. Think of your childhood consisting of pain (no changing clothes, fighting against your best friends, usually to death, you are encouraged to steal, but if you get caught you were punished... not for stealing, but for getting caught, and finally being dumped in the wilderness, etc). Adulthood was extremely military, and the extreme views of Spartan society have given them an almost mythical reputation in history.
** Ultimately it undid them, they were limited in number to at most a few thousand of them and the loss of even a few hundred warriors was a major blow to them. They quickly reached their maximum extent.
* The communities of any form of [[Serious Business|professional games]] (as well as [[GIFT|anything online.]]) are pretty much this. They all try to form an elite social class and try to separate themselves from the common rabble. When they can't and are forced to interact with the common rabble, they either delight in beating them, or try to outright kick them to keep an "inferior being" called a "noob" from tainting their games. If they can't, they try to encourage that newbie to [[Rage Quit]] by constantly belittling and insulting them. This is [[Mo BA|worse in some genres]].
** [[Suffers Newbies Poorly]] is pretty much this in community trope.
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