February 11, 2015:
early 20th 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 20th 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.
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