Social Darwinism proclaims “survival of the fittest”. In biology, fittest is defined as reproductive success, leaving as many of your genes, as much of your footprint, as you can. I see no avenues for just living in a diverse world by taking up views such as “survival of the fittest”. Looking towards a sustainable future, leaving a world that future generations may walk on would be more beneficial, more “just”, than leaving our own genetic footprints. In a world growing precariously overpopulated, reproductive success seems an antiquated way of measuring human fitness – there are many ways to be fruitful.
We were asked how to live well and just in a world with so much diversity. I would pose an alternative question: How can we possibly live without so much diversity?
To live well and just is no call for Social Darwinism – it is a call for social ecosystems. Ecosystems, they are what create selective pressures in the first place. Animals better suited to their environments are selected and assume a role that contributes to their environment. An organism’s niche allows it to with live within its environment much like the way humans in Country and the gift live; one who cares for the land will in turn be cared for by the land. A social ecosystem adopts the same sense of humility and interconnectedness with the earth that indigenous cultures share. In a social ecosystem, people are given the opportunity to live well and contribute to society in their own way. Nature fosters individual specialization and community interconnectedness. If we can prosper in individual roles that we see as part of a greater whole, if we adopt a governing web structure instead of a pyramid, then perhaps diversity could make humanity stronger, rather than tear it apart.
Maybe my abstract ideas make more sense in poetry?
The Ecosystem
I am but a thread
Spun and hitched
By the spider’s leg
Intersecting lines
of land and life
of beliefs and rights
We wonder what is right.
can water, food, shelter,
finding happiness be basic?
They are complex rights
Like the ecosystem of life.
They are worth the fight.
The spider will spin
And the panther hunt
For nature’s music within
Each of us
Is part of me, part of you
part of the soil and the roots
that hold the foundations
to all things in nature –
be a reflection.
