In Time

Saul Bellow´s Seize the Day has as a main character a man named Tommy Wilhem, or at least that is what he calls himself. His real name is Wilhem Adler, but his relationship with his father is such that he has changed his family name. Dr.Adler is described by his son as a fearsome man, a retired doctor who was as cold to his son as to the rest of his patients, an aging man. Oddly enough, Dr. Adler immediately remembered me of my own grandfather. He too is a retired doctor, and a great one at that. Although my father has never changed his name, he does admit that their relationship was tough, due to the fact that my father´s grades never met such a prominent man´s expectations. But if I ever met Wilhem I would give him some advice, or at least tell him what lies ahead. As Wilhelm mentioned, his father was pushing eighty. My grandfather will be ninety in one month, but some five years back he suffered a health collapse. He went from having breakfast with his children, traveling and working every single day to staring at a T.V. every day, not being able to walk alone, and forgetting the names of his children and the fact that his wife passed away some twenty years ago. Somehow, when I look at my grandfather it is hard to picture the impressive man that Dr. Raúl Paredes used to be, winning national awards and scaring my uncles and aunts to the death. He does not meet like an agreeable man, just like Dr. Adler. But the fact is that even the scariest, most prominent men will always meet the end and soon, with old age, become old fart bags that will be forgotten soon.

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.