Survival of the unfittest

I truly believe it’s the survival of the un-fittest these days. —Yellowstone, Season 5

 

Ostensibly, the quote flies in the face of Charles Darwin’s survival of the fittest posited in his theory of “Origin of species by means of natural selection”. The theory had caused existential and religious crises in Victorian England, as is evident in the novels of Thomas Hardy and George Eliot.

This theory is deterministic in its nature as it postulates that the species that adapts to the changes in the ecosystem safeguards its existence. But if the environment undergoes rapid changes, species may not be able to adapt fast enough through natural selection. Natural selection can lead as easily to degeneration as to ‘higher’ forms of life.

However, Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest holds water in an atheistic world that ascribes to human beings the zoological status. In the deistic domains, man is placed at the highest pedestal in the hierarchy of living creatures.

The other thing is that the survival is at two levels: physical and metaphysical. Corporeal existence is gladly sacrificed to challenge the prevalent injustice and eternalise the values required for the peaceful physical existence on this earthly abode.

In the present age of 5G technology, changes are happening at whirlwind speed; nothing survives but the ones — whether tangible or intangible — that stick to permanent values of truth, beauty, simplicity, probity and diligence, which have always been the guarantors of permanence.

The survival of the unfittest can be illustrated best through examples from our daily lives. When all exploit fair means or foul to weather the onslaught of excruciating inflation, the one who doesn’t forego purity and honesty lasts longer than the former. When the majority of traders sell adulterated things, the one who determines to sell the pure is valued and sought after much by the customers.

In times infested with selfish pursuits and vested interests, the altruistic souls like Abdul Sattar Edhi outlive this age of the fittest. Socrates was the unfittest to his ossified clime, and so was Galileo.

Only the unfittest have always come up with constructive and enduring achievements. The hundred most influential persons mentioned in Michael H Hart’s book, The 100, remain unfittest in their particular times, but ultimately the human world owes to them for changing the course of history.

A character in literature attains the status of a protagonist when he challenges the status quo or rampant corruption. Without being the unfittest cog of the rusted social machinery, he cannot become a legend. It is the unfittest who resist the onrush of human carnal desires.

In the milieu supersaturated with the electronic and social media, the printed word is considered the unfittest, but the researchers at the University of Valencia suggest that print reading over a long period of time could boost comprehension skills by six to eight times more than digital reading does.

On the fast-changing kaleidoscope of the tech world, the tech savvy adherents know no moral moorings. Under the illusion of successfully adjusting to their times to angle for their vested interests, the fittest fall a prey to tunnel vision in their opinion and morality, that deprives them of metacognition — the speed hump to remind them of keeping tabs on their cognitive over-speeding.

The students who fit in the lay of the land and pass early levels of education with flying colours by depending upon rote learning and using short cuts fizzle out sooner or later while their diligent and creative counterparts achieve durable success in the long run.

Truth always stands unfittest to the myopic followers of untruth which loses its lustre with the wear and tear of time. Hazrat Imam Hussain (AS), the epitome of truth, tolerance and tenacity declined majestically to bow to the primarily reprobate majority. His name will guide the unfittest as long as human existence remains intact.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 7^th, 2024.

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