LAST EDITED ON Jul-03-01 AT 10:55 AM (EDT)

>No they're not - they're manipulating the process, not accelerating
>it. They're picking favorites.
>
>Say you have a couple of primative tribes at war - and you go in and
>give one tribe machine guns and grenades. They'll probably win - but
>that's not evolution. Social darwinism is a bunch of bullshit, which
>has been shown again and again. It is pseudo-science for the ignorant
>masses.

Yes, that's right, but as far as I recall, they were more or less only manipulating the politics into war. The only race they gave hand grenades and machine guns were the Centauri, and I can't even remember why...

As for 'social darwinism', I have no idea where you draw the line and call it darwinism, social darwinism, biological darwinism, or whatever. You may be completely right - it sounds like the point you're trying to make is that you can't have evolution from forced military upgrades and encounters. Which is kind of true.

But you can, even in the bastard version of evolution the Shadows go for, improve your 'favored' races, either by genetic or social manipulation. Or even cybernetics, as they did with the Psi Corps. While this may not count as evolution on your scale, they could very well justify it as such.

>Besides, even taking your view - if the Shadows lose, then they
>weren't the 'fittest', now were they?
>
>If you're going to be a Social Darwinist, despite how discredited that
>view has been, then it comes down to who wins the war. Only a fool
>would just lay down and die.

I don't recall the Shadows sitting there cursing about how unfair the world was... they may not have had the right idea, but they were hardly hypocrites.

-Craig

--->Edit fixed spelling: unfare->unfair. To not charge the Shadows for plunging the universe into war would have been unfare.