I do love a bit of drama in natural history. Dawkins is hard to beat with material like this:
"We have the power to defy the selfish genes of our birth and, if necessary, the selfish memes of our indoctrination. We can even discuss ways of deliberately cultivating and nurturing pure, disinterested altruism- something that has no place in nature, something that has never existed before in the whole of the history of the world. We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators" (The Selfish Gene).
2 comments:
Peter,
You Brits are certainly a clever bunch and bring so much to intelligent thought and advanced cultural ideals.
So, what do you think of Dawkins' theory? If it's true, maybe there is hope for this world and we can set forth a new way of thinking and create a harmonious environment.
Well I am a big believer in collective wisdom. So if the yanks brought drive, energy, resourcefulness and determination to the table and the Europeans a bit of old aged wisdom and experience- that would be a good start. Hopefully American isolationism is coming to an end.
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