520 INTRODUCTION TO EVOLUTION 



haps our social and economic system is in the evolutionary bUnd alley, peo- 

 ples of some other cultures being on the road to progress. If it sounds like 

 heresy to suggest that the people with the most and best machines, the most 

 potent engines of destruction, and the most devastating bombs are not 

 surely on the road to progress, recall that the dinosaurs were the most 

 powerful destroyers in their day also! As a student of evolution I find 

 strange fascination in that most controversial of the Beatitudes: "Blessed 

 are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" (Matthew 5:5). Perhaps the 

 future will demonstrate that this and its companion — "all they that take 

 the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matthew 26:52) — were correct 

 prophecies. 



Though we cannot predict with certainty that ours is the society which is 

 on the road to progress, our knowledge of biological and social evolution 

 does provide us with inklings as to what may constitute the hallmarks of 

 progress. First we may note a grave error made by some of the immediate 

 followers of Darwin. Darwin himself stressed the struggle for existence. 

 One phase of this struggle is between individuals for supremacy and sur- 

 vival. Emphasis on this phase led to a school of thought called Social Dar- 

 winism, in which great emphasis was placed upon the value of struggle for 

 supremacy between individuals and between societies. This was the "na- 

 ture red in tooth and claw" concept applied to human Hfe and society. Ac- 

 cording to this view, ruthless economic competition, the exploitation of 

 "inferior peoples," and warfare constituted the accepted means of evolu- 

 tionary progress. "Might makes right" and "the devil take the hindmost." 

 So in the decades following publication of the Origin of Species the idea of 

 natural selection was taken as justification for all manner of exploitation, 

 economic and military. Those who were strong proved to themselves that 

 they were "the fittest" by exploiting the weak. Cutthroat competition and 

 the exploitation of colonial peoples were the order of the day. No wonder 

 evolution fell into disrepute with sensitive and thoughtful people. 



Fortunately a reaction set in. Kropotkin was a leader in this with his 

 Mutual Aid; A Factor of Evolution (1917), and other voices were heard 

 calling attention to the fact that cooperation is as valid a factor in evolution 

 as is competition (see Allee, 1951; Montagu, 1950, 1952). On an earlier 

 page (p. 355) we mentioned the "survival value" of cooperation, for ani- 

 mals living together in societies. Man is such an animal. Clearly, cooperation 

 between individuals in a society is of the highest value for the success of 

 that society. In fact, we may anticipate that that society will be most suc- 

 cessful which achieves the most perfect state of cooperative living. For 

 man, then, cooperation is clearly a hallmark of progress. 



