Image courtesy of David Oliete
Joel Kontinen
Humanity’s innate treachery is behind social ills
ranging from inequality to abuse of power. Lessons fit from our ancestors can help defeat the
enemy within
Darwinian evolution has made humans Machiawellian and
born socialists, this is what New Scientist says, but it is not true, we know
that evolution does not happen. It is just a fairy tale. I
think that this has not do with the present woke ideology,
“Nearly 2 million years ago, one of our hominin
ancestors developed bone cancer in their foot.
The fate of this
individual is unknown, but their fossilised remains leave no doubt that cancer
has been a part of our story for a very long time. It is also clear that, when
threatened by our own normally cooperative cells turning against us, we evolved
an immune system to help us identify and deal with the enemy within.”
The
dates
given are not
accurate,
humans had cancer but so early.
“But
treacherous cancer cells weren’t the only internal threat our ancestors faced.
As hypersocial beings, their survival was also jeopardised by selfish
individuals attempting to subvert the group – and capable of unravelling
society, just as a cancer eventually kills its host. I am interested in
understanding how we adapted to this threat. At the heart of the story is this
question: is human nature selfish or altruistic, competitive or cooperative?
Are we essentially cancers, tamed by culture, or more like healthy cells in the
human body, working together for mutual success?”
Source:
Jonathan R. Goodman 2025 Evolution has made humans both Machiavellian and born socialists | New Scientist 9 July
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