Tackling the Human condition

The 20th century was subject to rapid technological discoveries in almost every industry. The topic of science and ethics gained momentum as scientific applications became able to address social issues. The most celebrated discovery in the realm of biology was attributed to the publication of Darwin's Origin of the Species, which described a natural selection that could explain the diversity of life in the natural world. As Darwinian theory of evolution gained a considerable foothold in the history of biological discovery, his concept took form in the minds of social philosophers. To some, natural selection and evolution could be applied to the human population, implying that certain weaknesses of humanity were traits that could be filtered from the gene pool through selection against individuals with such degenerate traits. This idea of social evolution took form in the subject of eugenics before it exploded into the agenda of nazism. Eugenics took place in the U.S. as a means of associating poverty, sexual deviance, and other forms of delinquency with genetic disadvantage. This idea of inferiority in the human race sparked the question of the human condition that continues to be discussed in present day.

In our readings of the Fantastic Four, it is clear that the subject of human evolution is popular in literary culture of the 1960s. Issues #45-47 of volume 3 document the FF's adventures with the so-called "inhumans" and their quest to find a place in society. The inhumans are characterized as a race of human origin that evolved with superior abilities before mankind had discovered fire. In the inevitable clash between inhuman and human races, the inhumans decided to flee from their inferior earthly bretherin and live in secrecy to avoid future conflict. When they are discovered by the FF, their ruler plans to destroy the human race as a means of inhabiting the earth without living in secrecy. The FF decide that the inhumans should be able to live alongside humans in open society, but are unable to convince the ruler to abandon his trope of world domination. The story ends with the inhuman race being permanently trapped in an iron dome that cannot be penetrated by known means.

Whether the inhumans were genetically superior or even inferior to the normal notion of the human form, the idea of any un-human intelligent being is an interesting topic in discussion of social issues. The eugenics movement accelerated the concept of a differentiation in genetic identity between true human and un-human life. The ultimate fallacy of this argument stems from Darwin's original theory. Evolution by natural selection, according to this theory, does not move in any single direction. Evolution does not occur over time as a means of "improving" a population of organisms. In contrast, populations adapt over time to their changing environments. Without even considering applying this concept to social issues, the overwhelming misinterpretation of the eugenics movement embraced evolution as a process of improvement, as if making progress toward perfection. The Fantastic Four fails to see this aspect of evolution as it describes the inhumans as superiorly evolved beings. This is indicative of the way that evolution was perceived even decades after WWII.