JULIAN HUXLEY 
The main operative agency in this phase of evolution is psycho- 
social pressure. ‘This is the resultant of the separate pressures 
of individuals’ loves and hates, desires and hopes, needs and 
purposes; but it is related to the conflicts and problems thrown 
up by the march of events, and given direction by some general 
organization of ideas and beliefs. It has to operate within an 
organized system of social institutions, which will have arisen 
out of past ideas and events, but which may often be out of 
step with later ideas and their results. 
As Darwin first pointed out, there has been during biological 
evolution a general trend towards improvement—improvement 
in efficiency and in self-regulation. ‘This trend is inevitable, but 
is accompanied by much waste, suffering, and extinction. The 
trend towards improvement continues in psychosocial evolution, 
though again accompanied by suffering, horror and evil. Yet 
in spite of all the waste and misery, the total improvement 
achieved during the whole process of evolution, from the origin 
of life to the present day, is almost incredible—from a sub- 
miscroscopic pre-cellular viroid to a self-conscious civilized 
human vertebrate, throwing up on its way a fantastic profusion 
of organic and cultural variety. 
This is both an encouragement and a challenge. The chal- 
lenge is man’s obvious imperfection as a psychosocial being; 
both individually and collectively, he is sadly in need of im- 
provement, yet clearly improvable. The encouragement derives 
from the fact of past improvement. If blind, opportunistic, and 
automatic natural selection could conjure man out of a viroid 
in a couple of thousand million years, what could not man’s 
conscious and purposeful efforts achieve even in a couple of 
million years, let alone in the thousands of millions to which he 
can reasonably look forward ? 
The next point to note is that the process of improvement is 
not continuous. It takes place in steps, by a succession of 
successful or dominant types of organization, each endowed with 
new capacities and possibilities. Some once-dominant types 
become extinct, but many do persist, though in reduced num- 
bers and a subordinate position. 
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