Yet Again, We Got It Wrong

Mothers have a tendency to be altruistic in regards with their offspring, with all of them. This is explained in Chapter 8 of The Selfish Gene, called the Battle of the Generations. But it also explains that, again because of our competitiveness, siblings will always be looking to be the favorite, the one with the most attention and affection. Therefore, it is normal that jealousy should arise. Perhaps the most famous story about brotherly jealousy is the one that precisely condemns it. Cain and Abel appear in the Old Testament as two brothers, one a shepherd and one a farmer. They were giving their offerings to God, Abel with his sheep and Cain with his fruit, and God seemed to prefer Abel´s gift over Cain´s. Jealous over the Father´s preference, he smashed Abel´s head until he was dead, and later denied it to God. He was heavily punished by his father, condemned to eternal wandering. But the importance of this story in Genesis is unbelievable. Almost the complete cause, it lead to the frowning upon anyone who does not have a healthy relationship with their sibling(s). But competition between us is, in fact, natural. Our animal instincts are again frowned upon by our strict society, proving even more that etiquette and social correctness are simple conventions invented to make our lives more complicated. So, once again, we got it wrong.

The Restless Conquest

"Family Planning". This is the title of Dawkins´ seventh chapter, a chapter where he points out the clear increase in the birth rate of humans. Not only are we reproducing much faster than before, but the death rates have decreased exponentially through history. Thanks to medicine and other resources, the death average has gone up and people now live at ages that did not even seem like possible ever before. This idea brought me back to a novel I read about a year and a half ago written by Daniel Quinn and entitled Ishmael. It is truly a philosophical/reflective text, where a man is taught by a gorilla the ways of man and his mistakes. The biggest one, perhaps, was altering nature. Even believing in gene selfishness one has to admit that nature has found a perfect balance to everything-even to the desire of competition. In this novel it is argued that because we decided to domesticate nature instead of letting people die as they should, we have exceeded ourselves and, although we have resources, there is a limit to everything. This goes alongside Dawkins when he says that starvation eventually comes to children who just don´t fit. But what pushes us to want more, more of our species? Our own genes, because the bigger the population the more powerful and capable of overcoming others. This means that eventually our survival thirst will take us to our doom. It is definately a warning, one that many choose to ignore in a very selfish action towards the species.

Do We Have a Chance?

Chapter 6 of The Selfish Gene, Genesmanship, begins with a brief explanation of a selfish gene. It clearly stated that it is all over the world, in all types of shapes, colors and sizes. Each type of gene has their specific survival machines, each designed to outlive others. We need to be strong, to fight, because others will take advantage of us to fulfill their own personal desires. So what does this leaves us with? With the choice of fighting for our lives daily, overcoming those who wish to harm us, or the choice of sitting around and waiting for that same selfishnes in others to end us for good. There is no easy way out, is there?

Excuses, Excuses (Ch. 5).

The more I read of The Selfish Gene the more I realize how there is a scientific explanation for our so-called wrong behaviour. Chapter 5 enters the realm of aggression, where, as survival machines, we see all other survival machines, or our environment, as potential resources to be exploited. This is how food chains arise, species using each other for their survival. But never do these machines use the same species, a discipline called cannibalism in humans and a HUGE taboo. I am a firm believer that the human, in its superiority, believes that it can do as it pleases and that bad consequences will soon present themselves. Apparently, so is Richard Dawkins. The difference between both of us is the fact that he has scientific evidence, while I have my gut. Although we have found ourselves to be excellent survival machines, perhaps the over exploitation of resources will lead us to our own doom. Take plants, harmless, innocent organisms. They barely exploit their environment. They have outlived our species by far, and that have not had to adapt constantly unlike ourselves. And the fact is, that although the natural thing is to take advantage of others, we have challenged nature by refusing to die, by refusing to be of small numbers, by refusing to adapt. Time will take its toll, and it is up to our desire to survive to change our ways at the expense of altruistic casualties for the good of our selfish species.

Justifying

Chapter 3 of The Selfish Gene, Immortal Coils, describes the process of crossing over and how the information that comes from our parents fight each other to become the predominant gene and ultimately define our physical characteristics. It shows how, even before birth, competition is what it is all about. Only the strongest manages to win the race or fight, while the other gene is left as the recessive one. For example, my dad´s hair won the fight when deciding on my hair, which is why it is straight like his and not curly like my mother´s. It is interesting to see how our desire to win begins before our mothers even realize that she is carrying a baby, and it is no surprise that this habit continues in our childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. We have to be the best at something, or else we feel worthless.

When I was smaller I remember wondering why people could kill, hurt, and do illegal things just to win the race of the riches. The answer I always recieved from my parents was the following: "It´s simply our human nature". I shut up right then, but then I felt sad because what I had understood is that we are all meant for murder and concious mistakes. But the fact is that we win at any cost. THAT is our human nature. Although I was against brutal competition, I understand why it happens this way. It is a natural process, one that begins before our life ever does. Too bad.

Survival Machines

The second chapter of Dawkin´s work explains how replicating genes will create "survival machines", or places in which to live. Slowly, just like with evolution, these machines grew stronger and stronger as time and circumstances demanded it. But whichever replicating gene is what lies inside of us got it all wrong. If it wasn´t for opposable thumbs and superior intelligence, we would be the weakest animals of the bunch. Not only do we have inferior force, but we do not excel at swimming, jumping, leaping, flying, or any other useful survival skill. It´s a good thing that with time we developed brain ability, because if we had not found ways to protect ourselves and invent ways to disguise our lack of survival skills, our species would have probably died a long time ago. The truth is, the human race is the most physically inoffensive one of all. But because of our selfishness, we did not let others get advantage. We overcompensated with machines, clothes and the taming of other creatures. So although our genes made a mistake in terms of our physical abilities, they made the correct one in terms of our desire to be the best species of all.

Selfishness Overload

The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins begins by explaining its purpose, which is to expose how selfishness of genes rules in evolution. Although it states that "altruistic" individuals do exist, it also exposes that in the end, their actions are always done for the good of the species and therefore, are selfish. But although it talks about selfishness and the survival of a species, I wonder if there is selfishness among different kinds of groups inside the same species, much like human conflict today. Not only are we selfish in reference to other species, exploiting anything that may serve useful towards us, but we are also selfish between ourselves. Very few people ever become altruistic and "sacrifice themselves for the good of the species". This is the best example that perhaps we are the most selfish species, the most selfish gene of all. Based on Darwin´s ideas, this means that our species will be the last to die, because we are the strongest of all. We will destroy everything in our path to get there, and indeed we are living up to that responsibility. But perhaps, because we do not care generally about others in our species, we will only care about personal survival. If so, perhaps we will only destroy ourselves until the last, strongest individual of all is left standing. Maybe being the strongest is not the best thing of all, because we are so blinded with our greed that we forget that occasional good is not a bad thing. If we don´t slow things down just a little bit, our own selfishness could backfire.