THE CAUSE OF WAR
Sir-yYou printed a talk recently by a Hungarian professor on the causes underlying the Nazi mentality. It is true that a continued study of the evolution of the individual may lead to such conclusions but, if that were the whole truth, how could the kindly habits of co-operation and the greater virtues of Self-Sacrifice and Devotion to’ Duty ever have been evolved? My solution is that up till now Biology
has studied only the evolution of: the individual which has produced the fleetness and courage and also the beauty of the horse, and has ignored the evolution of the group. It is obvious that in the Struggle for Life the Group. is much more important than the individual. A lone wolf would starve in a week or two, a lost sheep would be eaten before morning. It is, therefore, the qualities which enable the group to survive which. are the vital ones. The wolf is a cowardly brute. He trusts no one, for he knows that if crippled he will be at once torn to pieces and eaten by his own pack, yet even the wolf has to leap at the throat of the deer or the pack would starve. Even the wolf-pack has to see that the cubs are protected and also that they are allowed a share of the "kill". or the pack would die oyt. The wild sheep had their ideas of Duty too. The mob drew together with the rams outside and there they faced the wolves. Unless self-sacrifice had been common neither sheep nor.wolves could have survived. I maintain that Self-sacrifice and Devotion to Duty were thoroughly established in all animal communities long before our ancestors left the treetops. Whatever helped the community was Right. Anything else was " Not Done" and the offender was driven out or destroyed. Kindly habits and consideration’ for others helped to keep the community together, so these survived. Their origin is probably earlier than that of our backbones. If we could get the Germans and the Japanese to realise that their science has been one-sided and misleading the problems of the future would be solved.
THOS.
TODD
(Gisborne).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 281, 10 November 1944, Page 7
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362THE CAUSE OF WAR New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 281, 10 November 1944, Page 7
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