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Things as They Are

Fred Russel

    Evolution deceives us. We believe that it always leads us in the right direction, higher and higher, and therefore that things always turn out for the best in the best of possible worlds. Of course we understand that there are wrong turns but these seem to iron themselves out and are quickly abandoned like the saber-toothed tiger and other extinct species, leaving us with what is viable or meant to be. We ourselves are thought to develop in just this way, always creating improved models, moving from tyranny to democracy, from crude tool making to hi-tech, in what we think of as a natural and inevitable evolutionary process.
    This basic misunderstanding of evolution, coupled with the feeling that on the whole society functions fairly well, is perhaps what inclines us, at least philosophically, to tolerate the institutions that control our lives. We do not question the rules that these institutions devise for their own convenience but obey them like sheep, arrive at the appointed hours, stand in lines, sit in waiting rooms, fill out the forms, follow procedures. We believe that this is the most rational way for societies to organize themselves. We understand too that wherever there is tragedy, armies of reporters will stick their microphones into people’s faces to squeeze a screaming headline out of their grief and misery or that commercial enterprises will enter our homes via the television screen to sell us their breakfast cereals and carcinogenic hamburgers. Free enterprise is seen as the cornerstone of capitalism and capitalism, in America, is seen as the most advanced and efficient economic system the world has ever known. A free press is seen as the cornerstone of democracy and journalists are seen as its guardians. These two fallacies are so prevalent that it is almost impossible to conceive of a world in which journalists are not given the license to invade people’s privacy and free enterprisers are not permitted to sell their merchandise by exploiting the vulnerabilities of consumers.
    The truth is that not all the wrong turns in our evolutionary development iron themselves out. Some become institutionalized and therefore permanent, leaving vital social functions in the wrong hands. Yes, it is natural for people who like to write but lack the talent to become novelists or historians to create a subsidiary branch of the writing trade called journalism, and yes it is natural for the greediest among us to try to sell us what we don’t need or can’t afford, not to mention what may kill us. Consequently, two of the most important functions of a society – the provision of its material needs and the control of information – have been taken over by individuals who are the least suited to carry them out.
    Evolution is blind. It does not recognize its own wrong turns but relies on natural forces to work things out. Certainly it has rules, but even at the most primitive level of human society these rules are easily circumvented, for better or for worse: nature is suppressed, the unfit survive, and the unworthy develop skills that enable them to prevail. The result is a world controlled by the wrong people. Among them are of course politicians, whose greatest skill is not the management of society, which one would expect, but the ability to win elections, which consists largely of talking smoothly. Evolution has therefore let us down. It did not foresee how things were going to turn out. It believed, perhaps, that a higher type would prevail and instead it got what is secondrate. Only we can save ourselves.

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