Darwin’s theories on evolution may have revolutionized science, but they also sent society down a slippery slope towards amorality.
The concepts embodied in evolution had great influence over the business minds of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Social Darwinism was used to justify racism, low-wage workers for mass production and mass-schooled children for low-class job recruiting. It can be argued that Darwin’s ideas were improperly applied, but they were strong influences nonetheless.
One of the most destructive themes to emerge from this period is the idea of moral relativism. With God out of the picture and no hope for life after death, the human condition was reduced to feral and morality became only a convention of circumstance with no “right answer.” The predominant philosophy became, “Whatever is, is right.”
This new belief system emerged much to the benefit of the corporate world. The highest moral standard was based on the success of the business (survival of the fittest). Anything was fair grounds as long as it kept the shareholders happy and didn’t flagrantly break any laws. Every situation could have its own ethical standards that need not apply to other situations. And sadly, this depraved moral philosophy is promoted by our school systems, preparing our children to become good employees.
Although Big Business relied heavily on natural selection theories to justify their misdeeds, the concept of moral relativity certainly existed well before Darwin.
I grew convinc’d that truth, sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and man were of the utmost importance to the felicity of life; and I form’d written resolutions, which still remain in my journal book, to practice them ever while I lived.- Benjamin Franklin
Even Ben Franklin was a proponent of variable ethics in his youth. He wrote pamphlets while working for a printer in England about how “vice and virtue were empty distinctions.” It didn’t take him too long to change his mind and realize that those doctrines of relative ethics were not very useful.
The truth of the matter is that we all need morals. Not flexible ones that we can change at will; we need strong, steadfast, guiding principles that lead us unwaveringly through our lives. Without that, we are but chaff in the wind, subject to a worrisome existence of dubious relationships and conflicted conscience.
Fortunately, we are not all beholden to the fate prepared for us by the robber barons.
Like Ben Franklin, we can make a conscious choice to live morally
