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added important section about Social Darwinism in America
However, [[Ludwig von Mises]], an advocate of laissez-faire, argued in his book ''Human Action'' that social Darwinism contradicts the principles of [[liberalism]].
However, [[Ludwig von Mises]], an advocate of laissez-faire, argued in his book ''Human Action'' that social Darwinism contradicts the principles of [[liberalism]].
One would like to think that Darwin was not racist himself, but that would simply not be true. In ''The Descent of Man'' he predicted that the gap between humans and lower species would widen through the extinction of "evolutionary intermediates" such as gorillas and Negros. He declared that ''"the break will then be rendered wider, for it it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as the baboon, instead of as at present between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla."'' <ref>'''''The Descent of Man,''''' Charles Darwin, 18871, p. 201</ref> In this sense, he too was subject to the follies of his times.
One would like to think that Darwin was not racist himself, but that would simply not be true. In ''The Descent of Man'' he predicted that the gap between humans and lower species would widen through the extinction of "evolutionary intermediates" such as gorillas and Negros. He declared that ''"the break will then be rendered wider, for it it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as the baboon, instead of as at present between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla."'' <ref>'''''The Descent of Man,''''' Charles Darwin, 1871, p. 201</ref> In this sense, he too was subject to the follies of his times.
== Social Darwinism ==
In the late 1800s and early 1900s in the [[United States]], social Darwinism had a cruel and barbaric effect on attitudes towards the mentally disabled or feebleminded, as admitted by leading [[liberal]] [[U.S. Supreme Court]] Justices:<ref>''City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Ctr.'', 473 U.S. 432, 461-63 (1985)(Marshall, J., dissenting, joined by Brennan and Blackmun, JJ.)</ref>
:Fueled by the rising tide of Social Darwinism, the "science" of eugenics, and the extreme xenophobia of those years,<ref>On the role of these ideologies in this era, see K. Stampp, Era of Reconstruction, 1865-1877, pp. 18-22 (1965).</ref> leading medical authorities and others began to portray the "feebleminded" as a "menace to society and civilization . . . responsible in a large degree for many, if not all, of our social problems."<ref>H. Goddard, The Possibilities of Research as Applied to the Prevention of Feeblemindedness, Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Correction 307 (1915), cited in A. Deutsch, The Mentally Ill in America 360 (2d ed. 1949). See also Fernald, The Burden of Feeblemindedness, 17 J. Psycho-Asthenics 87, 90 (1913) (the retarded "cause unutterable sorrow at home and are a menace and danger to the community"); Terman, Feeble-Minded Children in the Public Schools of California, 5 Schools & Society 161 (1917) ("[Only] recently have we begun to recognize how serious a menace [feeblemindedness] is to the social, economic and moral welfare of the state . . . . [It] is responsible . . . for the majority of cases of chronic and semi-chronic pauperism, and for much of our alcoholism, prostitution, and venereal diseases"). Books with titles such as "The Menace of the Feeble Minded in Connecticut" (1915), issued by the Connecticut School for Imbeciles, became commonplace. See C. Frazier, (Chairman, Executive Committee of Public Charities Assn. of Pennsylvania), The Menace of the Feeble-Minded In Pennsylvania (1913); W. Fernald, The Burden of Feeble-Mindedness (1912) (Mass.); Juvenile Protection Association of Cincinnati, The Feeble-Minded, Or the Hub to Our Wheel of Vice (1915) (Ohio). The resemblance to such works as R. Shufeldt, The Negro: A Menace to American Civilization (1907), is striking, and not coincidental.</ref> A regime of state-mandated segregation and degradation soon emerged that in its virulence and bigotry rivaled, and indeed paralleled, the worst excesses of Jim Crow. Massive custodial institutions were built to warehouse the retarded for life; the aim was to halt reproduction of the retarded and "nearly extinguish their race."<ref>A. Moore, The Feeble-Minded in New York 3 (1911). This book was sponsored by the State Charities Aid Association. See also P. Tyor & L. Bell, Caring for the Retarded in America 71-104 (1984). The segregationist purpose of these laws was clear. See, e. g., Act of Mar. 22, 1915, ch. 90, 1915 Tex. Gen. Laws 143 (repealed 1955) (Act designed to relieve society of "the heavy economic and moral losses arising from the existence at large of these unfortunate persons").</ref> Retarded children were categorically excluded from public schools, based on the false stereotype that all were ineducable and on the purported need to protect nonretarded children from them.<ref>See Pennsylvania Assn. for Retarded Children v. Pennsylvania, 343 F.Supp. 279, 294-295 (ED Pa. 1972); see generally S. Sarason & J. Doris, Educational Handicap, Public Policy, and Social History 271-272 (1979).</ref> State laws deemed the retarded "unfit for citizenship."<ref>Act of Apr. 3, 1920, ch. 210, § 17, 1920 Miss. Laws 288, 294.</ref>
==References==
==References==