‘The lessons of history’, written by Pulitzer price winning historians Will & Ariel Durant, is a very concise take on the civilisation of mankind. It has 13 chapters such as ‘History & Economics’, ‘History & Religion’, History & War’ etc.
“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” You can check this short but insightful book here.
Today I will try to summarise a bit of ‘History & Biology’.
Lesson #1: Life is competition.
Life is peaceful when food abounds, violent when mouths outrun the food. Cooperation is real but is a tool & form of competition. We cooperate in our group to compete better vs. other groups (families, communities, “race”, nations, etc)
Lesson #2 Life is selection.
We are born unfree and unequal to Nature: subject to physical and psychological heredity, diversely endowed in health, strength, mental capacity & character. Inequality is not only natural & inborn, it grows with the complexity of civilisation. Nature favours the exceptional, & makes the strong stronger & weak relatively weaker.
Freedom (Liberty) & Equality are sworn enemies. When one prevails, the other dies. Leave them free, & the natural inequities will multiply. To check the growth of inequality, freedom must be sacrificed. The utopias of equality are biologically doomed.
Lesson #3 Life must breed
Nature does not favour organisms that can’t reproduce abundantly. Nature is more interested in the species than the individual. Whenever the human brood has become too numerous, nature historically had three agents for restoring balance: famine, pestilence, & war.
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From the desk of Aditya Khanduri
About me (Why I started Polygyan)
