Social Darwinist extremism led to eugenics programs across Europe and the U.S. These ideas quickly escalated into extremism when societies and governments, following British philosopher Howard Spencer’s phrase “survival of the fittest,” started labeling certain humans as socially unfit (usually racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities, among others) and treating them as subhuman. Social Darwinism is a term used to describe the ideologies that became popular in the late 19th century applying Charles Darwin’s theories of natural selection to human society. Rest brought him new confidence and almost a feeling of security.Įven so zealous a hunter as General Zaroff could not trace him there, he told himself only the devil himself could follow that complicated trail through the jungle after dark.Zaroff personifies the social Darwinist extremism that plagued much of the early 20th century. His need for rest was imperative and he thought, "I have played the fox, now I must play the cat of the fable."Ī big tree with a thick trunk and outspread branches was near by, and, taking care to leave not the slightest mark, he climbed up into the crotch, and, stretching out on one of the broad limbs, after a fashion, rested. He knew it would be insane to blunder on through the dark, even if he had the strength. Night found him leg-weary, with hands and face lashed by the branches, on a thickly wooded ridge. He executed a series of intricate loops he doubled on his trail again and again, recalling all the lore of the fox hunt, and all the dodges of the fox. "I'll give him a trail to follow," muttered Rainsford, and he struck off from the rude path he had been following into the trackless wilderness. I have heard that in America businessmen often go to pieces when they give up the business that has been their life." I was lying in my tent with a splitting headache one night when a terrible thought pushed its way into my mind. "They were no match at all for a hunter with his wits about him, and a high-powered rifle. It was in Africa that the Cape buffalo hit me and laid me up for six months.Īs soon as I recovered I started for the Amazon to hunt jaguars, for I had heard they were unusually cunning. Naturally, I continued to hunt-grizzlies in your Rockies, crocodiles in the Ganges, rhinoceroses in East Africa. I, luckily, had invested heavily in American securities, so I shall never have to open a tearoom in Monte Carlo or drive a taxi in Paris. "After the debacle in Russia I left the country, for it was imprudent for an officer of the Czar to stay there.
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