February 11, 2015:

early 20^th Century Monopolies & Power

To better understand the riveting story of US monopolies and trusts during the early 1900s step back and consider the philosophies and concepts, moral or otherwise, of the time: 

First, American exceptionalism as a term dates to the 1830s and was widely used in the early part of the 20^th century referring to the country’s abundant natural resources, industrial capacity, and absence of rigid class distinctions".

Second, Charles Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest.   "The survival of the fittest" theory in biology was interpreted by late 19th century capitalists as "an ethical precept that sanctioned cut-throat economic competition" and led to the advent of the theory of "social Darwinism" which was used to justify laissez-faire economics, war and racism. However, these ideas predate and commonly contradict Darwin's ideas, and indeed their proponents rarely invoked Darwin in support, while commonly claiming justification from religion and Horatio Alger mythology.

Third Individualism emphasizes the moral worth of the individual. Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance and advocate that interests of the individual should achieve precedence over the state or a social group, while opposing external interference upon one's own interests by society or institutions such as the government.^[3]

Individualism makes the individual its focus^[1] and so starts "with the fundamental premise that the human individual is of primary importanc.  This philosophy, when combined with an elite sense of privilege and status, would reinstate the divisions between the haves and have nots, the rich and the poor, the weak and the strong.  The mythology of equality for all under the US Constitution was brewing.