INTELLIGENCE, POWER, 



fetishes, are placed in the minds of little children, where 

 they obtain possession of the final common path and there 

 remain until, in turn, the process is repeated generation 

 after generation. Thus is it that political, religious, and 

 scholastic leaders, long after their death, remain as leaders 

 in the minds of their followers. 



In civilized life the most difficult task is to overcome 

 the inherited action patterns etched by phylogeny. Our 

 ancestors were beset by innumerable dangers. Great ani- 

 mals attacked homeless man, who lacked shelter as well as 

 the protection of weapons. With naked body and naked 

 hands he met the attack of his enemies. His chance for 

 survival rested in quick action for himself alone and, if 

 possible, for his family. This tormented ancestor of ours 

 survived by being an individualist, "a liar and a thief." 

 Had he been kind and gentle, trusting and philosophical, 

 instead of being fierce in fight, swift in flight, a convincing 

 liar, a successful thief, and a sly strategist, we might not 

 exist today. 



The great primitive virtues fighting, stealing, lying, the 

 means by which man's early existence was made possible 

 theoretically are not now required. It is only in the fierce 

 struggle among nomadic people in the desert or among the 

 primitive people that these traits have survival value. 



In Africa today native man lives as do the wild and 

 powerful animals. To secure his survival he makes use of 

 every animal sense he possesses. He bands with his com- 

 panions to spear the lion that carries off and crunches the 

 bones of his fellow. He tricks the great elephant and 

 rhinoceros into pits. He lives as unprotected a life as any of 

 his fellow animals. Endowed with a thinking brain, but with 

 eyes unadapted to penetrating the darkness, feet less fleet, 

 ears less acutely attuned to sound, and a sense of smell less 

 sensitive than that of the animals about him, native man, 

 toothless compared with his enemies, multiplying by a 

 slower process and burdened for many years with his help- 



230 



