That's a demented way of looking at the world, and it's disproven by the historical success of America as a republic, compared with countries in which "survival

That's a demented way of looking at the world, and it's disproven by the historical success of America as a republic, compared with countries in which "survival of the fittest" is the only rule, like Russia, or pick any dictatorship. Survival of the fittest leads to dictatorship; dictatorships stagnate, because they spend all their energy only on maintaining power. They are efficient in one sense, at maintaining order. But they are centralized and limited in throughput and therefore are never dynamic systems capable of growth and innovation.