OK, part 2 is coming sooner than I thought.
I really like Elyson’s recent post on duality and Alpha Phi Omega versus Darwinism.
To quote Card’s Empire (yet again) -
“The great breakthrough in human evolution, the one that made civilization possible, was the discovery that two alpha males could form intense bonds of ur-brotherhood instead of the normal pattern of fighting until one is dead or driven away. It is the story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu — a man will plunge into hell for his friend. Thus the male DNA is tricked into sacrificing itself to the benefit of unrelated DNA; story triumphs over instinct; the monogamous civitas triumphs over the patriarchal tribe. Instead of one alpha male reproducing his superior genes over and over again, a far higher proportion of males reproduce, even though some die in war. All because human males learned how to trick themselves into loving each other to the point of suicidal madness.”
Synthesizing those two, I’d have to say, yes, society and civilization are contrary to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution. If everyone lived by survival of the fittest, man would kill his neighbors and rape their wives. There is no positive value in one man helping another. But there is normative value. And by definition, norms are a creation of society.
Alpha Phi Omega is shining example of civilization and humanity. We dedicate our time and energy to the service of others. (The only example I can think of better than us is indeed the military, who are willing make the ultimate sacrifice — their lives — to humanity.) I want to remind everyone that Alpha Phi Omega has been this shining example for over eighty years! Our chapter alone has been providing service others for over fifty-five of those years. Yes, recent events are a dark spot on our record, but it but a speck of dust against the sun-like brilliance of our organization.
With that said, I hope that the hate-mail, shit-talking, and other types of personal attacks stop on both sides of the issue, and that we can pick ourselves up and move on as a chapter.
(And yes, I am two-faced for posting this right after my other one.)
I don’t think you could have framed the Will Oh situation any better. I know that a lot of emotions were stirred during this, but it’s always important to view it from a rationale POV, and I really think all this finger-pointing and hatemongering is almost as dissapointing as Will’s actions.
However, I do have to disagree with you about Darwin. You can view natural selection on an individual level, or on a species level. Many species survive ONLY because they form a functional society (bees being a very stunning example). I think that mankind has gone far because it’s ability to form community and accumulated knowledge has far exceeded any other species to date. I don’t know that there is a “trascendance” of natural selection going on, if anything this relatively newfound peace on earth has led to extremely high growth and survival rates.
Bees and other colony-based insects certainly do have a form of society in my opinion, but it’s roughly the equivalent of the hunter-gatherer villages of our ancestors. If they were better able to manipulate their environment, I think we’d definitely be given a run for our money as “most advanced.”
As far as transcendence, I think humanity has definitely transcended natural selection. We have such control over our environment that it’s now impossible to say that any human died because they were “unfit.” The high growth and survival rates you mention are due to sacrifices made by soldiers, doctors, and scientists so that people completely unrelated to them have better lives.
Right, I agree. Part of being able to manipulate our environment is that we can act on a scale that allows permanent, long-scale communication. Ancient civilizations were able to record findings for future generations, and nowadays we can communicate worldwise because of our ability to mold objects into tools of communications. You have to realize that humans also have a 10000 year knowledge advantage that only gets steeper every year at the rate we’re going. Bees would have to go very far to catch up.
Humanity has transcended natural selection in the traditional sense. People still fall victim to more fit “prey” such as AIDS, tsunamis, meteors, and Galactus. A cockroach might survive all four, but under the current conditions on Earth, humans thrive.
One might say that the ability to communicate is actually a genetically fit trait even within a purely physical context. Communication can prevent warfare, and internal warfare is certainly an unfit trait. Imagine this: If there was a species of cat which for some unknown reason constantly bit off it’s own limbs every 5 years or so, it’d be pretty unfit. If a new cat evolved with a gene that enabled it to say, Hey.. maybe I should stop eating my own leg, this new cat mutant would probably live longer and have more offspring, who in turn would live longer and have more offspring.
By getting rid of our “unfit” trait of internal warfare, we rid ourselves of unneccessary casualties, and allow the furtherment of communication and scientific advances needed to combat any future obstacles.
This is all fine and dandy, but I think you forget that every length of peace in human history is followed by conquest. As soon as we lay down our arms, the commies are moving in. And oh yes, I mean China and Korea. You can’t trust them commies. :em04:
The “transcendance” that I’m talking about is the psychological attributes of Darwinism to man, one could argue that we are selfish by nature and to transcend survival of the fittest one must become self-less and care for others.
Darwinism maybe fine and all, but who cares for the weak, if the fit survives? anyways… this shit has been a long time ago, but I like the thoughts that helped generate this post.