a lot of people have no idea “only the fittest survive” was an ecological concept based on capitalism and has long been replaced by “evolution happens in many cool ways including cooperation and community”
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This is in large part because people have such a limited understanding of what “fitness” means. All those other ways of being evolutionarily “fit” were always what Darwin had in mind, it’s just that modern minds immediately jump to big muscles and other sporty standards of succes.
Relatedly, I read “Sleeping Beauties, The Mystery of Dormant Innovations in Nature and Culture” last year. I liked how it highlighted how genes are sorta all random ideas ahead of their time, waiting for the right environment. Evolution in fits a a starts, like how the eye evolved several times.
idk I really see the country’s obsession with anti-intellectualism as a root issue. more people should be debunking social Darwinism at the dinner table. we need earnest debate and big ideas all over the place
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