Peace and War

Dr. Alexander, the author of The Globalization of Addiction: a Study in Poverty of the Spirit, is a strong believer of Darwin. His insights on Darwin as a psychologist made me admire Darwin even more. There has always been something missing in my understanding of Darwin’s theories: group selection. In explaining this theory, Dr. Alexander answered my questions as to why there is peace and war in human history. Humans are social creatures by nature, as well as animals who fight to survive in the great chain of life. Group selection, a desire to continue a certain selection of people, involves human’s using their intelligence to strengthen social bonds and thus their chance of survival. This explains the peaceful, strong sense of community between some groups; as well as, the conflicts of interest, and thus wars, that arise when these groups seek out new ways of supporting themselves. The constant growth of the human population means that societies must fight for the Earth’s resources to survive. It is a depressing reality; however it is impossible to negate the war ridden history of the human civilization