Dialectical Materialism: The Other Social Darwinism
Capitalists will defend their ideology with examples from nature. “Social Darwinism!” they cry, “The best people succeed, and the weakest fail, it’s Natural Selection!” This, like most capitalist argumentation, seems to stem from a misunderstanding of theory which is then ascribed to a completely different realm of science. Despite the fact that this rhetoric has long since entered conventional wisdom, a simple analysis of the claim proves it, if not false, at the very least deeply flawed. After all, it is silly to consider Danielle Bregoli, the “Cash Me Ousside” girl, more “fit” than an honest laborer working from 9 to 5 in a factory despite the fact that the former is a millionaire while the latter is barely above the poverty line.
This leads to a question: If Capitalism does not resemble Darwin’s theories, than can any theory be supported by “Natural Selection”?
Communism.
Specifically, the Communist theory of Dialectical Materialism. Dialectical Materialism asserts that economic systems grow and evolve in response to new innovations to replace previous economic systems. This already seems far more natural and intuitive than the Capitalist theory of “every economy grew and changed until they reached Capitalism, which is perfect and will never change.” Naturally, life is constantly in flux, as populations adapt to their environments. Any claims at permanence must then be treated as unnatural.
Furthermore, Communism provides a more honest understanding of Natural Selection than the “Social Darwinism” Capitalists so espouse; Darwin believed that we must look at evolution as a force that affects populations, not individuals. An individual that has a special beneficial mutation does not necessarily do better than an individual without that mutation, however, a population with a beneficial mutation will do better than a population without that. Similarly, it is foolish to think that a single person can thrive in an economic system for being “better” than others. Rather, we must look at trends in populations, what Marx referred to as “Class Analysis.” With this we can see the clear struggle of working class, who produce goods and services, and the capitalist class, who own those goods and services. Just as a biologist can identify traits that will cause a population to rise or fall, so too can we see that the trait of Capitalist labor-parasitism is holding us back. Unfortunately, this is another thing biology seems to predict: In nature, species grow out of their shortcomings, or they die.
