The Politics of Natural Selection, Continued

"OdogThewise", who commented on Warren Kinsella's piece in today's Sun, reinforces my point beautifully.

Here's what he had to say:

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The world is full of Lions and Lambs.........
Fordbsgtrek is a lion......... And a True Patriot!
Urbansurvivor is a lamb who would not survive for very long if the anarchy he condones ever does come to this country........
He forgets that we right wingers have the tools, the talent and the will to truly survive.
And if...... (heaven forbid) we ever see a collapse in law and order in this country due to any number of causes........ We will remember those who pushed for Canada to be so light wristed.
Left wingers will promptly be put on "gathering" duty in a lawless society.
If they are to be included at all.
The slowest buffalo will once again go to back of the herd to become prey for the wolves. And the fastest will set the tone.
Be careful of what you wish for Urbansurvivor...... It can all be over with a simple push of a button.

Survival of the fittest.  With the fittest being those who have the skills to survive through aggressive competition.  He talks about tools (weapons, I'm guessing - there's that guns in everyone's hand escalation bit again), "gathering" duty (my grandpa's a Holocaust survivor so I know exactly what he means) and pushing the weak to the back of the pack to be eaten by wolves.  That's not about society - it's about biological evolution, selection of the fittest.

The "slowest buffalo" of course would include the crippled, the mentally ill, the blind/deaf, people with breathing disorders and even wounded soldiers.  See, some of these "slow buffalo" are slow not from anything nature's given them, but by what's happened to them in a social context.

Odog finishes off with "It can all be over with a simple push of the button."

By button, of course, he means the one that launches nuclear warheads and brings a radioactive end to all human life as we know it.  Cockroaches would inherit the earth because, under that scenario, they're physically stronger than we are.  Odog isn't thinking that far ahead, though, because strong emotions are fixated on end goals - that' why they exist, to get us past an immediate threat.  They aren't meant to be sustained over the long term.  That, naturally, leads us back to mental health.

But we would never have had a button to push is we hadn't had collaboration, foresight and a bit of altruism.  Where did the West's Cold War science brigade come from, again?  Take it a step further - how was the telephone invented?  What have "slow buffalo" like Stephen Hawking contributed to society, when accommodated?  All of society's great accomplishments have come from moving in the opposite direction Odog would see us go - through collaboration, communication and innovation.  In society we don't get rid of problems; we turn them into opportunities.

Ouroboros.  Society isn't about endings - it's a continual cycle of old begetting new.  And that's the true circle of life.

If you want to go fast - go alone.

If you want to go far - move together.