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 Peg's
Polemic
Every
month, philosopher Peg Tittle casts off the calm, measured and qualified
style of her profession to deliver her opinionated and impassioned
column, exclusively for the TPM philosophy café...
Number
3. King of the Castle
Octavia
Butler got it right in Xenogenesis when the aliens identified
one of our fatal flaws as that of being hierarchy-driven (they fixed
us with a bit of genetic engineering)--but she failed to associate
the flaw with males only.
And
Steven Goldberg got it right in Why Men Rule when he explained
that men are genetically predisposed to hierarchy (fetal masculinization
of the central nervous system renders males more sensitive to the
dominance-related properties of testosterone)--but he presented
that as an explanation for why men rule and not also for why men
kill.
And
Arthur Koestler got it right in The Call Girls when, recognizing
that the survival of the human species is unlikely, a select group
of geniuses meet at a special 'Approaches to Survival' symposium
(and fail to agree on a survival plan)--but I'm not sure he realized
that one of his character's early reference to a previous symposium
on 'Hierarchic Order in Primate Societies' was foreshadowing.
The
reason the human species will not survive is simple: the males can't
help playing King of the Castle--all the time, everywhere, with
everyone. Talk about aggression and violence, greed, or competition
is all very good, but these things are secondary: aggression and
violence are means to the end of becoming King of the Castle; it's
not really that men are greedy, they just want more than the next
guy, they want to be better, higher than the next guy, then the
next, and the next, until they get to the top; and competition,
well, competition is just another word for trying to become King
of the Castle.
And
once they become King of the Castle, they see, from up there,
that there's another castle to become King of. Once they've got
the one-bedroom apartment, they go for the two-bedroom. Then the
duplex, then the single family dwelling. Once they get a house,
they need a cottage too. And once they get the cottage, then they
need a summer home. Then a yacht. They can't stop adding and upgrading.
Whether it's homes or cars, stereo systems or computers--nothing
is ever (good) enough. Nothing satisfies. Sold one million? Let's
aim for two million. This year's profit is X? Let's set a target
of X + 1 for next year. Consider the business graph of success--more,
more, more... They cannot 'say when'. Contentment forever eludes
them. The only joy in their lives is that associated with achievement,
with getting a toehold a little higher on the hill, winning an extra
inch. They can't play without keeping score. They can't go canoeing
without a destination, and an arrival time. They cannot
concede, surrender, or lose without shame.
It's
not about the pursuit of excellence, don't let them kid you: there's
no standard of intrinsic quality involved; comparison is all. And
it's not about self-improvement: being King of the Castle seldom
improves the self.
The
end result to this deadly game they play will be the same, whether
it's achieved by genocidal war, environmental destruction, or the
global marketplace: loss of diversity. It's the kiss of death for
any, for every, species. (Unless, of course, some Nero goes nuclear
first.)
Peg's
Polemic will next be updated on February 1st 2001
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