"Social Darwinism"

A lot of hay has been made from the tragic school shootings in Finland this week where a deranged student went on a rampage and killed 9 people. The killer, who killed himself at the end of the shootings, called himself a "social Darwinist" who would "eliminate all who I see unfit".

I tried to read up on what a social Darwinism really is starting here at Wikipedia. Basically it is summed up as this:

Social Darwinism is the idea that Charles Darwin's theory can be extended and applied to the social realm, i.e. that just as competition between individual organisms drives biological evolutionary change (speciation) through "survival of the fittest" (not a scientific term itself), competition between individuals, groups, nations or ideas drives social evolution in human societies.

In other words, human society itself is undergoing evolution under pressure from various sources just like a population of a species would change to adapt to its environmental pressures, or ultimately die out.

Its an interesting idea, but like any idea there are people who could use it as justification for selfish actions.

The killer in Finland looked around and saw people and a society he didn't like for whatever reason. He seemed to think he could be an agent of societal change or evolution by starting some sort of pogrom revolution, killing all those he felt were unworthy.

In evolution of a species, the process works on the population and not the individuals and the same thing would apply, I would think, to social evolution if such a thing exists. But he was looking for justification for his desired actions in my opinion and logic was not an overriding factor here.

What's my point? The kid was sick and needed mental help. Its unfortunate that he didn't get that help before he lost it and killed people, but let's not blame evolution for his decisions. Its an explanation for how part of the world works, not a philosophy to guide your actions.