What Social Classes Owe To Each Other

Whatever you may think of William Graham Sumner's arguments, he expresses classical Social Darwinist theory quite eloquently. The title of this book, "What Social Classes Owe to Each Other," is answered by the author, essentially, as: "nothing." At one point in his body of work, he noted that life is like "Root, hog, or die." You have to work hard to make it or. . . . A classic line from this work illustrates the logic (Page 17): "certain ills belong to the hardships of human life. They are natural. They are part of the struggle with Nature for existence. We cannot blame our fellow-men for our share of these. My neighbor and I are struggling to free ourselves from these ills. The fact that my neighbor has succeeded in his struggle better than I constitutes no grievance for me." If you have value as a person, you will "make it." And those who cannot make it have no claim on the bounty that your success has created. It is a perspective that can be associated with the phrase "Nature, red in tooth and claw." A battle, a struggle for survival between individuals. Most biologists of behavior today would reject this mano e mano perspective, noting that altruism and cooperation are a considerable part of human nature—as is conflict. In his day, though, Sumner was a major figure, along with Herbert Spencer and others, in the Social Darwinist movement.