What inspires young men to slaughter innocent people? Terrorists from Norway to New Zealand have latched onto an apocalyptic vision of racial struggle. These extremists may become radicalized through hate sites and social media, but the core of their dangerous ideology is far older.
While ethnic conflicts have existed since the dawn of time, the 19th century development of nationalism and the biological sciences changed how these conflicts were understood. Nationalists applied the pseudoscience of Eugenics to “prove” their racial superiority. They also misappropriated Darwin’s theories, understanding “survival of the fittest” (a phrase not even used by Darwin) as an eternal struggle for racial supremacy. In a vicious, zero-sum world, peoples must fight for their existence or face extinction. In the early 20th century, such Social Darwinist beliefs were widespread. Their jingoistic believers would plunge their nations into unparalleled misery and death.
She Weighs on Us Like A Nightmare
In 1914, Germany was the most powerful state in Continental Europe, with the largest economy and the strongest military. German leaders should have taken pride in their nation’s bright future. Instead they were pessimistic. To their East, backwards Russia was modernizing rapidly. “She grows and grows, and weighs on us like a nightmare,” said German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg. His alarm reflected the conservative establishment’s anxiety that Slavic hordes would sweep across Central Europe and destroy the Germanic peoples. To these Social Darwinists, only one group could dominate Europe, the German or the Slav. As a pan-German publisher explained, “they must make room. Only by growth can a people save itself.”
The Kaiser foresaw a final cataclysmic struggle over European supremacy, “a racial war, the war of Slavdom against Germandom.” He declared it a “a question of life or death for the Teutons [Germans] on the continent.” Army Chief Helmuth von Moltke agreed, “I consider a war inevitable—the sooner, the better.” In a few years, Russia and her French ally would be stronger, and Germany would be overrun.
When Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, Moltke seized the opportunity to begin this racial war, declaring “we shall never again strike as well as we do now.” Germany pressed her Austro-Hungarian ally to attack Serbia, leading Russia to defend her “Slavic little brother.” In St. Petersburg, leaders showed the same ethnic chauvinism that prevailed in Berlin. In mobilizing his armies, Tsar Nicholas considered it his “historic mission” to defend Slavdom.
Four years later, over 20 million were dead. The Kaiser had lost his throne and the Tsar, his life.
A War Against the Jews
The bloodletting of WWI should have proven the destructiveness of Social Darwinist ideologies. Instead, the Nazis doubled-down on violent ethno-nationalism, promising to restore German greatness. Years before he took power, Hitler revealed his vision for an existential race war against the Soviet Union and the Jews in Mein Kampf. Nazi propaganda spread the message that the Aryan race must fight for survival and that living space, lebensraum, was essential to that survival. As Hitler declared, expansion was vital “to secure the space necessary to the life of our people.”
In 1939, Hitler exhorted his generals “Close your hearts to mercy. Brutal action. Eighty-million people must get their due. Their existence must be secured.” With that appeal, Germany invaded Poland, and set off the deadliest conflict in history.
The atrocities which followed showed the degree to which ordinary Germans had internalized the idea of racial war. German soldiers in the East saw Jews as the mortal enemies of the German people. The apparent choice between national survival and national annihilation made even the most horrific acts possible. A German policeman wrote to his wife, “I was aiming calmly and shooting dependably at the many women, children and babies. Bearing in mind that I have two babies at home, I knew that they would suffer same treatment, if not ten times as bad, at the hands of these hordes."
By 1945, the Nazis had slaughtered six million Jews and millions of other non-combatants.
White Genocide
After WWII, in the wake of unprecedented human destruction, Social Darwinism was rightly discredited. Yet recently, European populism, Russian nationalism, and Trumpism have adopted aspects of Social Darwinism. These movements have helped mainstream and legitimize extremist groups.
However absurd and intellectually disreputable their views, we cannot ignore them. Internet cesspools are rife with violent and dangerous ideas that appeal to disaffected young men around the world. These men are radicalized inside an echo chamber of anger and fear. Their worldview becomes dominated by the animalistic imperative: “kill or be killed.”
Before the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, the killer posted: “HIAS [Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society] likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered.” After attending bible study at a black church, Dylann Roof opened fire declaring: “I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country.” When Anders Breivik murdered dozens of teenagers in Norway, he claimed to be a fighter in a “European civil war” between whites and Muslims.
Similarly, the New Zealand terrorist considered himself a foot soldier in an apocalyptic war for white survival. His manifesto raged against “Muslim invaders” who are perpetrating a “white genocide.” The rants of these disturbed men reveal a violent, terrifying world that demands extreme action. They are true fanatics, willing to perpetrate any evil to serve their dark ideology.
When political leaders use the racial language of Social Darwinism, they are playing with fire. We need only to look at history to see what happens when that fire spreads.