“Nature red in tooth and claw” was one old take when Darwinism was new. It followed Spencer’s declaration that evolution was “survival of the fittest.” Both implied that the biggest, strongest, and meanest would and should win in the game of life.
Yet although our elites often subscribe to similar ideology, we rarely encounter such behavior in real life. The elites do not knife each other, the violence is often by poor losers. Most success comes to us by cooperation with our tribe, and acceptance of tribal laws, silly though they may be.
Of course there are horrible wars, mass murder by states, mass death by starvation and circumstance. But the societies mostly involved in such chaos are rarely the ones that continue and survive.
Luck is more in play than we want to believe. And behavior which tends to win at evolution may not be what we imagine. The early bird may get the worm, but may also be breakfast for predators while the late bird dines in relative safety. Things are both more simple and more complicated than any aphorism.
But we are a quickly moving society, no time for sophistication, and aphorisms fit our needs. And they are very useful to apologists for all the billionaire “makers.”
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 