I've recently been wondering what is going through the minds of US society today. On one hand, 90% or more of the US population believes that evolution and abiogenesis was responsible for how human life came about, and believes that survival of the fittest is optimal for evolutionary progess.
Yet on the other hand, we have left liberal left, backed by a majority of the US, which wants to save the little guy from a lot of heartache, when 90% of the time the little guy is backed into a corner of his or her own creation. The housing market collapse, for example. The government bailed out a large number of people who, in all honesty, deserved to reap the consequences of their poor actions. I don't have much sympathy for people who buy a $300,000 home when they're living paycheck to paycheck on $50,000 a year.
Doesn't it seem off to you that people are willing to pass laws and bills like Universal Health Care and the Stimulus Bill to help those who are "in need," yet at the same time claim to believe in the survival of the fittest? These bills are made to help that poor little guy out of his corner, when survival of the fittest declares that they should be left in that corner to die.
The same thing applies to the whole debate about euthanasia and/or pulling the plug on comatose and vegetable patients. Survival of the fittest would say that those people should be allowed to die, if not actively helped along. I can't say I like Dr. Kevorkian, but at least he was consistent.
Then there is the whole idea of keeping up the self-esteem of children in public schools. You pat them on the back and tell them what a great job they're doing, as long as they appear to give an effort. Survival of the fittest doesn't care a fig for the effort you put into something if the result is bad. Survival of the fittest doesn't care about how you feel about yourself, and it certainly wouldn't care if you decided to slit your wrists.
In the same way, as a society the US tries to help the poor by giving out minimum wage laws, food stamps, health care, unemployment centers, and what have you. They want to trade capitalism, the epitome of survival of the fittest mentality, for socialism which makes all equal.
Why are people obsessed with everything being fair for all? Doesn't their own belief system call for inequality for the betterment of humanity? Do they not want a world in which the strong and smart survive to pass on their wisdom, while the poor, weak, and old pass on and remove their strain from the system?
It is my conviction that even those who believe in evolution don't truly believe everything that it stands for, or don't want to follow everything that it would entail.
Am I alone in this line of thought?
