The curse of natural selection

December 2nd, 2023

Natural selection, as clearly seen in the case of human development, has privileged traits favoring cohesion, mutual support and a sense of belonging within groups and hostility and repression towards (even so slightly) different groups.

Natural selection, as is proven by even a cursory look around at current affairs, has little (or not at all) favored qualities such as long-term prevision and prudence and a sense of responsibility and wisdom — all of each would prove advantageous in the long run.

So, do we even stand a chance of going against natural selection, which by definition is a biological aspect of human development? Or are we to suffer from the consequences of the curse of the unmovable and unstoppable force of constant natural selection?

I myself don’t feel favored by natural selection at all, and that is a pity — especially because natural selection is unbothered by this statement and by me being unwilling to play this game. And it feels like a game where we don’t know the rules and yet are obliged to accept the results.

It is a game because, for all the positive traits (on a collective level) that natural selection favored — such as solidarity, cooperation, tolerance, compassion and altruism — the counterbalance of the negative ones — such as distrust, hostility to the other, competiveness and defensiveness — is random and unpredictable. It is like a roll of doctored dice, some numbers will stick and be repeated not by chance, but by a design of something that is beyond our control and understanding.