We have come a long way from our ancestral past transforming from a specie that had abilities only as advanced as being able to make stone tools to a specie that dictates the direction of our worldly environment with our obsession with successful attempts at industrial commoditization. We need not worry so much about predatory species and diseases with the protective barriers we’ve put up and our advanced knowledge of medicine. In fact, most of us are now focused on keeping ourselves entertained as opposed to worry about our survival for the next day, week or year. Although it may seem like we may have totally left behind our days of hunter and gatherer lifestyles for a realm of abundant consumerism, we are still playing the same game as we have been before: the game of Darwinism.
Darwinism can be described with one simple yet famous phrase: survival of the fittest. As arbitrary as this may seem, every single living organism since existence has a function built into them, a desire to win a game of survivor and to use their abilities to outcompete those around them. Species or individuals within a specie with traits that have the ability to overcome the adversities of their surroundings will have a greater opportunity to pass their genetics down to the next generation with the macroscopic end result being evolution once organisms with weaker traits are rooted out. This principle is fairly self-explanatory when looking at ourselves in prehistoric times or looking at species in the wild, however this principle is just as relevant today as it was millions of years ago.
Just like how each individual needed to hone their hunting skills in the past to survive, everyone must have some sort of competitive capability to survive our industrialized environment. Our society is based off of supply and demand and human work is a supply that is constantly paid off provided that it is done in a sufficient manner. Thus, the more useful skills you have to benefit those around you, the more likely it is that you will be able to be compensated to maintain good health and perhaps even raise offspring to further propagate your genes into the future.
Useful hard skills is what paves the foundation to support our consumerist behavior, however, one cannot just rely on that to survive. As social animals, we must be able to form healthy relationships with those around us. Likeability is often cited to be something that isn’t needed but I beg to differ. No one will hire you for a job if you are obscenely repulsive in the respective social setting leading to a lack of income for survival. Not only are hard skills necessary, we must also be able to make others feel good while you are with them.
Finally, we must not forget our most fundamental trait for survival: self-care. This is a fairly direct link to our past in that we have to watch out for dangers to our health. Whether that be personal hygiene, avoiding carcinogens or just avoiding cars on the street, each action has a potential consequence and over time, these systematic flaws will be reduced in magnitude as a direct result of death or perhaps social neglect leading to earlier death.
Thus, the game of Darwinism has evolved but the fundamentals has stayed the same. In the next article, I hope to write more about the differences between Darwinism in the modern day and in the past.