Baba Brinkman - Group Selection lyrics

"Sure, I could get up at dawn, go to a job I hate that does not inspire me creatively whatsoever, or I could get up at noon and learn how to play the sitar" Bill Hicks Survival of the fittest is such a bleak vision Are we really just a freakish collision of selfish genes Selfishly promoting their own individual interests? Well, maybe, but sometimes those interests are collective Still, "survival of the fittest" is a phrase easily twisted By anybody out to justify the meager existence That some people live with; it's a phrase often enlisted By parasites eager to benefit from these differences In the nineteenth century it was aristocratic eugenicists In the twentieth century, genocidal menaces Used "survival of the fittest" to justify their d**h sentences And gangsters still use it today to degrade their victims Not to mention the purveyors of disaster capitalism These are all examples of "Social Darwinism" But none of this is based on scientific evidence Merely showing that something exists in a state of nature Doesn't give it a moral basis; that's a false correlation Competition can sometimes increase motivation But evolution is also driven by cooperation Just ask the dictyostelium nation Bacteria combined into eukaryotic cells And became the organelles within their symbiotic shells And we have fifty trillion of those in our individual selves So we're like physical spaces where creative collectives dwell And this applies to the societies we erect as well 'Cause survival of the fittest also applies to groups And the fittest group makes the best combined moves So, can't we all just get along, whatever we try and do? Where's the altruism? Where's the love? Where's the altruism? All these vultures talkin' 'bout survival of the fittest But the atruism y'all, come on, where's the altruism? We need to get together on a common vision! Group selection just puts me in an altruistic mood Like: Yeah, love thy neighbour! What's that? You need some sugar? Okay, come by later! Of course I'll do you favour; why's that? 'Cause I've got the compa**ion of a vampire bat If you need some food, I'll do what I can So what if we're not related; you're still my man You're still my sister; I feel high, man! This universal love is good stuff, god damn! And you don't have to reciprocate either Because karma is a sophisticated teacher Karma isn't just energy waves in the ether! No, karma's in the way everyone hates a cheater Cheater detection will keep you in check when You jump cues and refuse to treat people respectfully So go ahead, take what you want, run me down 'Cause I believe what goes around comes around Liars and thieves and those who try to deceive Get dealt with by the immune systems of society And survival of the fittest? Don't let it baffle you Because fitness isn't "fitness", no, it's aptitude Between the environment and whatever's adapted to it And in social animals like humans, aptitude is attitude And my attitude is there's nothing we can't do As a human family group, as long as we have rules To keep the cheaters in check; I figure we can't lose We can go to the moon and back this afternoon As long as what's bad for me is also bad for you So let's just all get together and have some food And put an end to this endless feud – is that cool? Where's the altruism? Where's the love? Where's the altruism? All these vultures talkin' 'bout survival of the fittest But the atruism y'all, come on, where's the altruism? We need to get together on a common vision! "And if we evolve the idea, you see, the planet might be more compa**ionate, and something like heaven might dawn" Bill Hicks