1. Life can change quite quickly for those in a time of great technological advancement. Perhaps, in no time was this more apparent than during the Technological Revolution. From 1870 to 1920, the miles of rail line increased by seven and a half times in the US.This massive increase railroad mileage made a national market, and thus corporate entities, possible for the first time. We see this in the fact that though land used for farming grew from around 4,219 square miles to roughly 10,000, workforce in farming fell from 52 percent of the population to only 27. Indeed, those farms that continued to exist were quite a bit larger. Moreso, the percentage of the populace at work in industry grew from 29 percent to 44 percent and those in service
…show more content…
Social Darwinism is the psudoscience which applies Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and survival of the fittest to human society. It posits that human society (and individuals in said society) evolves over time; the strongest societies and people survive and dominate and/or assimilate the weak. The favored theory of egoists of the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, it justified the domination of the poor, downtrodden, and minority as progress. As we can see in Carnegie’s quote above, it was the favored view of the extremely wealthy as well. It allows them to feel contented in opulence without empathising with a lower people. We even see it’s nasty tendrils around some of the far-right today, with statements about the poor being weak and deserving their place. One step up, Social Darwinism also was used to justify systematic racial inequality. The whites are just better, one would say. Through this we justified the seizure of native land and the destruction of the native society. Ergo, Social Darwinism was a self-aggrandizing farce. Indeed, it justified the destruction of entire ways of life, and the subjugation of unimaginable masses of …show more content…
In the political cartoon “The Curse of California” G. F. Keller depicts a frightening image of the railroads as a giant octopus. Each tentacle engulfs a different rail interest, wheat, wine, United States bonds, wine, Farmers, Miners, and so on. The eyes of this octopus are the railway magnates, Mark Hopkins and Leland Stanford. This depicts the rail companies as monoliths of business that had swallowed up everything of value. Indeed, it implies that none could possibly stand up to these giant conglomerates without failing. Opposed to this is the book, “Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America”, by Richard White. He is of the belief that the railroad companies were mostly incompetent, and could not have done what they had without their own corrupt practices. He states that Rail companies were, not necessarily incompetent, but ineffectual. To survive, they needed government funds (payed back without interest), received from bribery (lobbying), the use of unfree labor (through the Chinese), huge land grants (also achieved from lobbying in part), and tax dodging.Through these practices, the men at the head of these corporations, careless, and without an understanding of fair practices, managed to bamboozle an entire generation into supporting their bloated corporate body. Indeed, White calls this “Survival of the unfit” seeing as they could not survive without the government breathing life into them (which they themselves influenced). Whereas,
Social Darwinism is the psudoscience which applies Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and survival of the fittest to human society. It posits that human society (and individuals in said society) evolves over time; the strongest societies and people survive and dominate and/or assimilate the weak. The favored theory of egoists of the late 1800’s to early 1900’s, it justified the domination of the poor, downtrodden, and minority as progress. As we can see in Carnegie’s quote above, it was the favored view of the extremely wealthy as well. It allows them to feel contented in opulence without empathising with a lower people. We even see it’s nasty tendrils around some of the far-right today, with statements about the poor being weak and deserving their place. One step up, Social Darwinism also was used to justify systematic racial inequality. The whites are just better, one would say. Through this we justified the seizure of native land and the destruction of the native society. Ergo, Social Darwinism was a self-aggrandizing farce. Indeed, it justified the destruction of entire ways of life, and the subjugation of unimaginable masses of …show more content…
In the political cartoon “The Curse of California” G. F. Keller depicts a frightening image of the railroads as a giant octopus. Each tentacle engulfs a different rail interest, wheat, wine, United States bonds, wine, Farmers, Miners, and so on. The eyes of this octopus are the railway magnates, Mark Hopkins and Leland Stanford. This depicts the rail companies as monoliths of business that had swallowed up everything of value. Indeed, it implies that none could possibly stand up to these giant conglomerates without failing. Opposed to this is the book, “Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America”, by Richard White. He is of the belief that the railroad companies were mostly incompetent, and could not have done what they had without their own corrupt practices. He states that Rail companies were, not necessarily incompetent, but ineffectual. To survive, they needed government funds (payed back without interest), received from bribery (lobbying), the use of unfree labor (through the Chinese), huge land grants (also achieved from lobbying in part), and tax dodging.Through these practices, the men at the head of these corporations, careless, and without an understanding of fair practices, managed to bamboozle an entire generation into supporting their bloated corporate body. Indeed, White calls this “Survival of the unfit” seeing as they could not survive without the government breathing life into them (which they themselves influenced). Whereas,