A Brief Word on Darwin

Darwin was a deeply religious man who was reticent to release his work.  He waited a full 23 years to publish his book out of fear of the religious ramifications to his work.  While he realize that he had made a significant discovery, he feared the possible misinterpretation of his work.  Indeed, “On the Origin of Species” mentions ‘love’ a full 95 times and ‘survival of the fittest’ only twice.  With readers hanging on for dear life to the ‘survival of the fittest’ soundbite, we can see that his trepidations were justified.

The Problem of Interpretation

Whenever an author unleashes a work, especially a work designed to change our understanding of the world in which we live, they are at the mercy of the interpretations of their readers.  People tend to read works through the lens of their own character and specifically their fears.

If one were to ask most people what a synopsis of Darwin’s work is, most would respond: “survival of the fittest”.  Although it is quite reductionist and even greater problem comes in the definition of ‘fitness’.

The problem is that fitness must never be conflated with ‘strongest’.  There are many ‘strong’ animals on the planet that are not necessarily the ‘fittest’.  Examples of the conflation of ‘fit’ with ‘strong’ are rife in recent history.

Social Darwinism

Social Darwinism (Eugenics) is the application of the law of natural selection to humans.  This term is unfairly associated with Darwin whereas it’s initial proponents (Hegel, Spencer) in fact based the tenets of their philosophy on Lamarck’s work (a contemporary of Darwin).  Nonetheless, the idea is that ‘strong’ individuals should be promoted and fostered whereas ‘weak’ individuals should be neglected and/or eliminated.  This line of thinking marked the philosophical underpinnings of Nazism and ‘The Final Solution’.

Here we see a tragic confusion between a ‘fit’ individual and a ‘desired’ individual with genocidal consequences.

Crop Diversity: Irish Potato Famine and the 1970 US Corn Crop

Admittedly the Irish Potato Famine occurred before Charles Darwin published his “On the Origin of Species” (published 1859) the process of artificial selection of potatoes in Ireland led to a monoculture in Ireland’s potato crop.  A monoculture is a species or race where all the individuals are very genetically similar to one another.  A specific blight came about which these potatoes lacked a defense against and wiped out the entire crop.

In 1970, the US developed a super-corn which was drought tolerant and pest resistant and they planted it aggressively all over the United States.  A fungus for which the super-corn lacked resistance emerged and ravaged the crop leading to billions of dollars in losses and food shortages.

In this example we see the that the definition of ‘fit’ used by the producers of these crops failed to include ‘diversity’ as vital component.

Jack Welch’s “Rank and Yank” a.k.a. Vitality Model.

Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric developed a model where employees were ranked and the top 20% were rewarded (bonuses, raises), the middle 70% were left as is, and the bottom 10% were de facto fired.  Again, we see the problem of how we rank, or determine employee ‘fitness’.

For example, in the 1980’s, Xerox invented the LISA computer.  This windowed user interface was the basis of both the Macintosh and Windows operating systems, but insofar as Xerox was concerned, it was sold off at bargain rates as a technology incompatible with Xerox’s future plans.  So those employees that produced the product could well have ended up in Jack Welch’s bottom 10%.

Here the ranking of employees is open to all sorts of faults which can, and does, in the very least, produce an individualist, non collaborative workplace.

The Alpha Male Rules Supreme

The lack of understanding of Darwin’s work leads many to believe that being the Alpha Male is the ultimate accomplishment in life.  This comes out of the misconstruction that might is right and that nature supports this theory.  To debunk this notion, take the example of a beaver that slaps his tail loudly on the water to alert other beavers to the presence of a predator.  In so doing, the beaver draws attention to himself lowering his immediate ‘fitness’ (the predator may now very well attack him) but in so doing saves many individuals who are closely related to him.  In so doing, the beaver, even if predated upon, passes his genes on indirectly through the genes of his surviving relatives.

Another example emerges from the predator evasion of deer herds.  Deer herds have alpha males which most ignorantly assume, run and manage the herd.  Thus one would think that when the alpha male determines a predator is nearby and starts to flee, so will the rest of the herd.  Not so.  In fact, in an example of natural democracy, when 60% of the deer vote with their feet by getting up, this promotes the herd fleeing and often leaves the alpha male dumbfounded.

The idea that the alpha male is the ultimate role to hold in the animal (and indeed human) world is foolhardy and does not survive an examination of the actual evidence.

Epilogue

Many people who develop paradigm shifting views bemoan their lack of appreciation and recognition during their lifetime.  They are often berated and abused by their contemporaries.  However, there would also seem to be a risk of having your paradigm shifting concepts recognized while alive in that one may have to witness the horrible mutation they undergo in the hands of those who malign and misconstrue to force it back into line with their own original world view.