no degradation so utterly degraded as a degraded mind.

If you ask what all this has to do with Socialism, the reply is that it
has everything to do with it. The sole object which I have in this
address is to impress upon you the concept of man as an animal in the
grip of an all-powerful Nature, and differing from other animals solely
in his greater ability to dodge and evade, and so prolong the processes
through which Nature will surely get him in the end; to conceive of him
also as subject to the same law which enthralls other animals, whereby
the fittest who demonstrate their fitness in the economic struggle shall
survive while the least fit shall perish; to conceive of him as prepared
and inspired for the struggle by the love of self which Nature has
implanted in his soul in order that the race may endure to the utmost
limit possible for it, by the survival of those having the greatest
capacity for happiness.

And, having fixed this conception in your minds, form your own judgment
of the probable outcome of a contest which would begin by eliminating
from man the one principle - selfishness - through which he must survive
if he survives at all.

Thus far, I have dealt with the subject in icy cold blood as a purely
economic problem wholly excluding all considerations of humanity. It
must be dealt with in that way if we are to deal with it intelligently.
What must be will be, however dearly we may wish it otherwise. But we do
not wish to go home with ice in our souls, and let us see if we cannot
find some reflections more comforting. I am sure that we can.

I have said that humanitarianism has no legitimate place in economic
discussion and it has not. But it has a very large place outside