Evolutionary Perspective

Evolution is a beautiful, cruel thing to behold. When I say behold, I of course mean in retrospect. Can you imagine witnessing it in real time? It would probably drive an immortal to attempted suicide. Even for humans, with our relatively short history, have changed a lot in our short stint on earth. For better or worse, I will leave that to interpretation. My point is, it’s incredible how far we’ve come from those old days of yore. This has come at the cost of certain sacrifices. It’s no surprise there is a lot of truth in the old adage “survival of the fittest”. I feel at the core of each individual, a small part of them thinks to themselves “at least I’m not at the bottom”. It’s easy to condemn this instinct of ours to not be the bottom, or the “throwaway”, but it makes perfect sense from an evolutionary perspective. After all, how does a species survive and thrive against the harsh conditions of the real world without culling the week and leaving the meek behind?

For humans though, it seems we have progressed far enough that the “price” to further progress is either deferred or removed entirely. We now have the luxury or capacity to care for the weak, enfeebled, and otherwise unproductive of our species. But how long can we continue to sustain this? At a certain point there is going to be some form of world event that will reset the process and force us back out into the harsh climates and hard decisions will be made. I’m not advocating anything, merely concerned that we might find ourselves in a Lord of the Flies situation. In which case, I better find me a nice, big conch shell.

I think about this because while I may not be the very bottom of the ladder, I feel like I’m one of the lower rungs. At least from a social perspective, I am very clearly not what most people consider normal, or of average temperament. I also suffer from lack of ignorance, in the sense that I am too self-aware of my own flaws, and it cripples me as a result. I oft wonder how far I would have made it in a post-apocalyptic world where we return to a state of nature and survival of the fittest is the only mantra anyone adheres to. I then wonder if maybe other people feel the same way as me, and are just better actors that conceal it much better. Whatever the case may be, I take some solace in knowing I got decent mileage out of it. Had the world been any less forgiving, I probably would have ended up livestock or fodder for some grand machine.