Language and Survival for MIDS

Language and Survival

As a biology major that is reading constantly I cant say that any of this information was new to me. I’ve already researched the topic of language, communication, ideas and humanity so I guess ill just write about what I know about it.
I don’t think any biologist would say that competition goes on at just the individual level. “Survival of the fittest” is a term that was created by H. Spencer to talk about big business and shouldn’t be applied to Darwinian evolution. That’s my first rant. Moving on.....
WARNING: TANGENT AHEAD
The newest idea adding on to evolution is the idea of selection based on entire groups. The majority of higher animals have some sort of hierarchical group structure. Individuals are not in constant competition and the dominant males and females have their genes spread. When we get to humans it changes a little bit. Because we are thinking creatures with a language and a vast global network we no longer compete with each other on a physical basis. (When was the last time you had to go kill someone to get a meal?)
Our competition is through ideas. Ideas are how we accumulate wealth and power. When two ideas run counter to each other we have war, i.e. capitalism vs communism. Neither is good or bad, they are just two ideas competing for power. Some philosophies go so far as to say humanity has surpassed biology and now we are merely tools of our own ideas. Through us ideas reproduce themselves. Language is how they do that.
As for the article, it probably could have down without the first few paragraphs talking about what animals we emulate. It was just silly. No animal has to be “the best” at something in order to survive. They just have to be better than the worst. Humans only need to emu8late the vast majority of humans in order to survive. Anyway, the first few paragraphs were misleading because the rest of the article had little to do with interspecies competition.
As for the last three pages, I could have done without them. I understand that not everyone knows about or understands the importance of language, but I don’t need a narrative about Mr. Mits to get to the point.
If anyone is interested in reading further about the importance of language in the survival of men read “The Lucifer Principle” by Howard Bloom.