The one about Will Lynch and survival of the fittest

So in class discussion last week there was the less-than-amazing spaceship analogy that made everyone think along the lines of "if we could only work together..."

Oh what a wonderful world it would be, no more war, racism, poverty… what a wonderful place… and here is an example of that place on this amazing spaceship, everyone is getting along! And then Dr. Martinek brought up Star Trek...

Now at this point it could be VERY easy for me to show my true geeky colors and say “the reason that everyone on the Enterprise gets along is because they have to go off and defend their people from Klingons, Romulans, and the type…” But I decided to digress and just say “They get along because they have to fight OTHER people..” that’s why you have O’Hura, Chekov and Sulu all getting together aboard the bridge of the starship Enterprise…

I later discussed this with my slightly-more-geeky brother and put it more simply, “A professor brought up Star Trek... I played dumb” to which he replied, “Good call.”

So the reason I played dumb? To be part of the larger group, to avoid criticism, to ensure acceptance. I’d rather be the closet nerd alpha male than the seemingly not accepted guy that sits on ass at home for hours on end playing NCAA Football 2007 then turning it off to watch the digitally remastered original Star Trek. Bottom line.. nobody wants to follow a trekkie.

So I strive to be the perfect alpha male; the athlete, the scholar, the AMAZINGLY good looking guy. I guess it kinda works... with the legions of women chasing after me, the magazine covers, the interviews, the friends, elections, endorsements, etc.

But I digress… Connecting all this together… The entire concept of society that we have of “working together” on some assumed spaceship earth is completely irrelevant due to the greediness of human nature. Everyone wants more, it works better in animals because they have the need for only one alpha male, in our societies things aren’t that cut and dry.

Now you may ask “How is this good for society?” Competition, when harnessed correctly is what continues our society. This is why capitalism succeeds and communism fails. The entire human race runs off of the combination of greed and competition, not only do we want to BE the best, but also we want to HAVE the best.