Question

Why in 100 words Social Darwinism have such broad appeal? please type

Answer 1

It is very difficult to know for sure why a group of people come to believe in a given idea. When you ask anyone why they believe in something, they'll probably tell you they believe it because it's real. You are likely to reveal as much about your own beliefs as you reveal about the beliefs of the people you are trying to explain if you try to ascribe reasons why people believe something. We can therefore only speculate on why people believed in Social Darwinism.

It seems easy to explain why people who succeeded would find Social Darwinism attractive. Social Darwinism provided a rationale for their wealth. It told them they were rich and successful, simply because they were better than anyone else. This meant they didn't need to feel guilty about potentially exploiting others. This meant they didn't have to worry that world could be unjust. They should accept the idea of meriting their money. This would seem to be an enticing idea because it would make the rich feel good.

Members of the middle class who believed in Social Darwinism did that because they believed in the American Dream. They believed they had what it took to become wealthy and that hopefully they would achieve that goal. Social Darwinism gave them the opportunity to hope that they would succeed in their hard work (and the potential they believed they had). They didn't need to just pray they'd get lucky. This made them feel themselves masters of their own destiny.

They'd become wealthy if they worked hard enough, and riches came to those who worked hard and earned it.

So we can speculate that the Social Darwinism appealed to the wealthy because it explained their riches and it appealed to the middle classes because it gave them hope for the future.