Progress and Poverty · Chapter
II: Differences in Civilization—To What Due explained
This chapter examines the causes of differences in civilization, arguing that they are not due to innate racial or hereditary differences but to social environment and opportunity.
What happens
This chapter examines the causes of differences in civilization, arguing that they are not due to innate racial or hereditary differences but to social environment and opportunity. George uses examples such as language acquisition, the effects of colonization on indigenous peoples, and the impact of social status on ambition to support his thesis that human nature is essentially similar across cultures, and that progress depends on environmental conditions rather than inherent traits.
Themes in this chapter
Human Progress and Civilization
The chapter explores the nature of civilization and progress, arguing that differences are due to environment rather than innate racial qualities.
Social Justice and Equality
George critiques the treatment of indigenous peoples and the impact of social status on ambition, highlighting inequalities rooted in environment.
Characters to notice
- Walter Bagehot
Quoted regarding European half-breeds in India being placed between moralities.
- Unknown
The narrator presents arguments and observations throughout the chapter.
- Benjamin Franklin
Referenced indirectly through the discussion of the influence of environment on character.
Key passages
“The scum of civilization that floats in its advance inoculates the savage would prove as destructive to civilized men, if they knew no better than to let them run, as he in his ignorance has to let them run; and as a matter of fact they were as destructive, until we found out how to treat them.”
The worst elements of civilization that spread ahead of its advance would be just as harmful to civilized people if they were allowed to run wild, as they were to the savages until we learned how to manage them.
George argues that the destructive impact of civilization on savages is due to the behavior of the worst civilized individuals, not inherent superiority.
“The true reason why there is no lament in any classic writer for the barbarian, but that the Roman civilization assimilated instead of destroying, is, I take it, to be found not only in the fact that the ancient civilization was much nearer akin to the barbarians which it met, but in the more important fact that it was not extended as ours has been.”
The reason ancient writers did not mourn the barbarian is that Roman civilization absorbed them rather than wiping them out, partly because it was more similar to them and partly because it expanded through conquest that left local structures intact.
George contrasts Roman assimilation with Anglo-Saxon extermination of indigenous peoples.
“The assumption of physical improvement in the race within any time of which we have knowledge is utterly without warrant, and within the time of which Mr. Bagehot speaks, it is absolutely disproved.”
There is no evidence that the human race has physically improved in any known historical period, and within the timeframe Bagehot discusses, it is clearly false.
George refutes the idea of racial physical progress, citing classical evidence.
“The great lesson that is thus learned is that 'human nature is human nature all the world over.'”
The key insight is that human nature is fundamentally the same everywhere.
George emphasizes the universality of human nature as a basis for his argument against racial determinism.