The Observer, February 23, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 18
Free Speech Zone: Critical thought and science in danger
I would like to thank a blogger at blog@case for bringing to the public's attention a recent film, Darwin's Deadly Legacy, released by the most extreme elements of the America's religious community. The film, which features commentary from that paragon of inquisitive knowledge and wisdom, Ann Coulter, is an attempt to connect Darwin's theory of evolution to the Holocaust. The makers of this "documentary" are so keen on avoiding the inaccuracy of their claims that they actually do not capitalize the "s" in Social Darwinism, so that an unknowing viewer would actually believe that Darwin was an advocate of theories of violent racist eugenics, which are in themselves misrepresentations of Social Darwinism.
Of course, historical accuracy is not the goal of these filmmakers; discrediting Darwin and obliterating the theory of evolution is. According to WorldNetDaily, a website promoting the film, the documentary "will show why evolution is a bad idea that should be discarded into the dustbin of history…'To put it simply, no Darwin, no Hitler,' says Dr. D. James Kennedy, the host of Darwin's Deadly Legacy."
The production and distribution of this film is indicative of a wider cultural trend which is at the root of the reactionary movement within the United States. What is really at play is a rejection of the 20th century and the attempt to falsely attribute the crimes of the Holocaust and other horrific conflicts of the past century to thinkers such as Marx, Darwin, Nietzsche, Kafka, and Freud. These thinkers were in fact contending with the very forces which led to so much violence in the 20th century: nationalism, racism, exploitation, ignorance, and the inability of people to be self-critical and recognize ulterior motives for their actions – so much so that the Nazis found it necessary to burn most of their books – hardly the appropriate treatment for their supposed philosophical influences.
Fascists are not the only ones to have found these thinkers' ideas so threatening that they attempted to systematically repress them, they found as much opposition from various other orthodoxies. We are undeniably seeing a similarly vigorous attempt by elements of our own society to eradicate ideas which do not comply with the minimalization of human complexity.
The kind of resistance that Darwin's ideas face is unfortunate because they presume guilt on the part of the thinkers instead of the people who engage in extreme behavior, such as systematically exterminating each other based on a completely contrived differentiation. If anyone is to "blame" for the Holocaust, it is people who would accept pernicious ideas as fact without questioning them. You should question Darwin (on scientific, not religious grounds). You should question every totalizing system of thought, especially the ones which people are most zealous for and devoted to (religion being the best, but not the only, example).
What is reflected in this film is a fundamental disagreement in our society: between those who are willing to live in an intelligent, self-questioning, non-doctrinal society and those who are not. This conflict is evident in America's educational, political, and legal systems. In the future, will we be singing a eulogy for Darwin, or for free and critical thought?
It depends if we are going to allow a small but extremely dedicated group of individuals impose their dogmatism upon the rest of society. It depends if people (both within and outside the United States) begin questioning their most devoutly held beliefs and opinions, be they religious or secular. It truly depends if people can relinquish the tendency to accept someone else's ideas or interpretations, such as those in Darwin's Deadly Legacy, as unequivocal truth.
Pieragastini is a senior History and International Studies major involved with Catalyst: Students for Social Justice, Case-ACLU, and the Philosophy Society.
