Free Should Survival Of The Fittest Be The Law Of The Land? Essay Example

Everybody in our world struggles for the existence, there is no doubt about that. Every day we deal with various situations that require from us different skills and actions. Most of the time we successfully bear down different problems; however, it is possible to state that there are times when one can fail to do something or to achieve something. Our world comes under two headings – there are weak and strong people.
In ancient times, weak people were not completely doomed to death, but very close to such definition. In Sparta, feeble newborns were thrown out from the cliff, for them not to be in the future weak soldiers and warriors. So, is it possible to apply such paradigm nowadays? Should we abandon weak people and make efforts to create the strongest society in the world? Or should we support everyone, regardless of his or her physical and mental state?
It is essential to say, that in the nature, among the animal, the term of the “survival of the fittest” is applied, as we can see the strongest kills the weak. In the late 19th century a definition “Social Darwinism” was created to show the concept of human’s struggle for existence, paralleled with worlds of flora and fauna. This study was based on beliefs and ideas created by Charles Darwin, and the foundation was of course his Theory of evolution.
British scientist also created the above mentioned term "The Survival of the Fittest," describing the dominance of the power and force in the world and the inevitable extinction of the weak. Plenty of his adherents claimed that they do not approve this theory the stronger people will survive, nevertheless, a lot of their arguments justify disequilibrium of power due to the fact that they observe the tendency that some part of human population is more adaptable for the world and fit to survive than others. (von Sydow)
Darwin believed that natural selection relied on the struggle for existence between people. Any human being that is capable of obtaining the important and necessary resources, frequently at other people’s costs, will survive, populate and hand down such favored features and qualities to next generations and offspring. One may say that, in nutshell stronger people would produce stronger generations, having better resources, therefore, the weak, "unfit" will die, and the strong, will continue its existence. (Andrews)
Stronger and clever people had and have better chances to survive, there are no doubt about that, and there are and were thousands of examples in the course of history. Darwin believed that human society is constantly changing. He also believed that competition between humans is normal and natural, which produces a better society and a better human being.
It is possible to say that people developed over large period of time, obtaining small and almost unnoticeable changes, therefore creates more opportunity for people to live easier. Nevertheless, only strong people adapt for new environment faster and better, weak people either adapt very slow, or do not adapt at all.
As for me, I think that survival of the fittest, which is as it was already mentioned, was the idea of Spencer, should not be applied. To begin with, it is essential to state, why such idea is not fit in our contemporary society. It is safe to say that in our modern time, with great technologies and medicine, one may state that people with weak physical state are not people who could be a sort of burden for a society. On the contrary, with the help of modern medicine, such people are able to live a long as possible. We are not live in jungles, and it is impossible to left someone to die just because he or she is not strong enough, to live without support.
I think that that is great, because every single creature on our planet is sacred, and should not be left to the mercy of fate. Everyone has a chance to live, and as our society has the technology and opportunity to help weak people. Nowadays we can see how many different organizations that help poor people, disadvantage people and just weak people, making our world a better place.
A great example of such individuals is Steven Hawking, the talented scientists, and one of the smartest people in the world. Because of his researches and achievements in scientific field, our community became much closer to the future, much closer to the understanding the world around us and its origin. Society has not turned its back to him, but rather supported and helped him. And what would be, if weak people were killed or not supported? And it is possible to cite plenty of examples of such situations.
Undoubtedly, it is possible to observe “survival of the fittest” from the other angle. Better genes create better genes. As it was in ancient times, only the strongest people had survived, thus provided strong descendants, and such chain went from the century to century. Nowadays, though, it is possible to say that a lot of people are weak both physically and mentally, and due to such features that could provide with weak posterity. This could create a society of feeble people, with no physical and intellectual development.
One may say that the population in the world is growing extremely fast nowadays, and it is important to somehow reduce such bug numbers. Due to overpopulation that could become a very serious problem in the nearest future, it is safe to say that our nature could be exposed to serious danger. For instance, more people (both weak and strong) require more space to live. As a result of human activity we have deforestation which results in soil erosion and furthermore in desertification. Moreover, one may see that in course oh human history, when population of different countries reached its peak, it is possible to assume that such countries became more aggressive and various wars can be launched. Due to the above mentioned facts, one may admit that the law of “survival of the fittest” is not very unethical concept.
Hence, one can come to the conclusion that nowadays our society supports everyone, including weak people. There are plenty of arguments against and in favor this issue, however, one may say that this problem is very delicate, as it touches ethical reasoning, therefore there are a lot of positive and negative sides of this issue. Personally for me, I believe that weak people should be supported, because everyone should have a chance in our life. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Work Cited

Andrews, Louis. Social Darwinism The Development Of An Intellectual Mood. 1st ed. 2007. Print.
von Sydow, Momme. 'Survival Of The Fittest' In Darwinian Metaphysics: Tautology Or Testable Theory?. 1st ed. London: Ashgate, 2014. Print.