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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!
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To: George S. Montgomery who wrote (23247)7/6/1998 2:54:00 PM
From: Jacques Chitte  Read Replies (1) of 108807
 
The problem with your doctrine of interdependence is that it denies our predator-nature. Where (on the moral axis) do you place the crocodiles and hyenas of our ecosystem? They are quite without empathy, but they are a part of the overarching organism.
I contend that man has a good dollop of the predator-nature within him. (Right there next to the poet-nature.) The war gene, as you call it. It serves a purpose. Every so often a war (tribal with sharp sticks, or intercontinental with turbojets and bombsights) acts as a set of pruning shears, placing the weak and infirm at a temporary but sharp disadvantage. And to reduce the organism metaphor perhaps further than you intend - a pruned tree is more vigorous and bears better fruit.

Where am I going with this? Pure compassion kills. Pure competition renders us savages. Somewhere in between lies the balance. I don't know where. But denying our inherent predator-nature is an act of retreat, not of engagement.
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