Does anyone know what this means? "Nature, red in tooth and claw"?

Question

1) In the following sentence, what's does 'nature, red in tooth and claw' mean?

Social Darwinistic thinking has not disappeared, but increasingly the "nature, red in tooth and claw" version of natural selection is regarded as an outdated brand of Darwinism.

2) I was wondering what's the purpose of authors writing largely factual essays, other than to just inform the public?

Answer 1

Social Darwinism is a philosophy, based on natural selection, that asserts that countries, businesses, groups, tribes, races, etc. are meant to compete with each other, and sometimes fight battles with each other, and the "fittest" survive.  

So, that phrase, "Nature, red in tooth and claw," suggests that these groups can and should fight it out to see who survives--even if there are bloody battles (figuratively speaking), and that is natural, healthy competition.  It is outdated since it has been used to rationalize racism, imperialism (with powerful countries conquering weaker countries), and exploitative business practices.

A more complete explanation is given by the website below.

Factual essays are valuable because they are informative, rather than just biased opinion.  And people who are good writers and concerned with issues can make a good living doing what they are good at--writing.

Answer 2

Hmm.......was he the person that created the idea hunt or be hunted? no wait ......that was someone else........oops........sorry. .....wait was it him?

well i think that it means that nature involves killing or each other, it is the natural order to eat and feed i suppose....

i find writing fun!

Answer 3

I think it means that natural selection is very, err, violent, like it's an animal with sharp teeth and claws that's just shred something to death and eating it, thereby drenching themselves in blood.

And in response to your latter question, err, I personally find writing fun...recently, I wrote a mini-essay as a reply to a message on MySpace about the difference between poison and venom. I wrote that so at least one more person (the recipient) would know that spiders and snakes are venomous, and because ignorance infuriates me. Hahaha. But that's a very interesting question...and I guess scientists and whoever get paid to publish their writings? I dunno, I'm in middle school. =/