Survival of the Fittest

Some people defend themselves by saying their actions are just "survival of the fittest" and that winning makes one superior. But what Darwin actually said is quite different. "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change." Joining the herd is your best chance of survival. Even if it is likely not the wisest, or the most ethical - as long as everyone else is doing it - you're only following nature. Of course this advice is just if your only goal is simply survival. If your goal is something a little more lofty like leaving the world a better place because you lived in it, then you are a thinking animal, not just a herd beast and things become more complicated. Anyone who studies human civilization, sees a pattern in which the best and brightest and most ethical do not rise to be leaders but are destroyed by the masses. "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."--George Bernard Shaw