![]() ![]() Zaroff seems to embody the philosophy of social Darwinism, as he attempts to justify his hunting of men by stating, “Life is for the strong, to be lived by the strong, and, if needs be, taken by the strong. ![]() ![]() In “The Most Dangerous Game,” Connell explores extreme social Darwinism on a small scale on Ship-Trap Island. These extreme social views eventually culminated in the Holocaust with Nazi Germany’s mass genocide of Jews, racial minorities, Romani people, the disabled, and homosexuals. Sometimes, the socially unfit were rounded up and killed. in which procreation was encouraged in socially “fit” people (usually white, able-bodied, and middle-to-upper class), and the “unfit” were sterilized by force and/or in secret. Social Darwinist extremism led to eugenics programs across Europe and the U.S. These ideas quickly escalated into extremism when societies and governments, following British philosopher Howard Spencer’s phrase “survival of the fittest,” started labeling certain humans as socially unfit (usually racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities, among others) and treating them as subhuman. Social Darwinism is a term used to describe the ideologies that became popular in the late 19th century applying Charles Darwin’s theories of natural selection to human society. Zaroff personifies the social Darwinist extremism that plagued much of the early 20th century. ![]()
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