The Age of Apathy

The denunciation of the law of the survival of the fittest recently made by zoologists William L. Brown Jr. and Edward C. Wilson is indeed disturbing. Claiming that jungle ants can abide each other after all, the zoologists are seeking to subvert a time-tested law of the universe. If there is any basis in their theory of "character displacement," it will mean that all existing philosphies will have to be rethought. Everyone knows that science determines the nature of the prevalent world view. In the eighteenth century Newton forced Alexander Pope to write in rhyming couplets, and in the nineteenth century Darwin caused the birth of Robber Barons and the death of Louis Agassiz. Now, once again (almost with the frequency of the Russians) science has changed its party line, leading one to suspect that it favors "struggle" theories in odd centuries and "harmony" theories in even ones. Scientists may enjoy the stimulation of constantly changing ideas. However, they ought to realize the hardship which they are imposing on the rest of suffering humanity, which must change its view entirely.

Obviously, the new discovery will result in a disastrous American social philosophy. The very warp and woof of American society is woven with the virile strands of Darwin and Herbert Spencer. Everyone knows that such stalwarts as Andrew Carnegie and Jay Gould, the true fathers of our country, the pioneers of our economic Manifest Destiny, were ardent champions of the tooth-and-nail existence.

Now meddlers like Brown and Wilson suggest that animals, and even people, can act in harmony, even though these scientists know that this new version of malicious animal magnetism will lead to a drastic softening of the national character, the collapse of capitalism, and the resumption of the Geneva spirit. We view with horror the replacement of bourgeois complacency by socialist complacency. Since the disastrous effects of the new theory are apparent, the theory is obviously specious. It leads one to think that science is fickle and ought to be curbed. Darwinism was good enough for our grandfathers and it is good enough for us.