I have never been much of a science person but alas I go to a liberal college for school. So that means I must get what one defines as a "liberal education". And that is how I, a history major and education minor, ended up in Zoology 101. I was prepared for this class to be incredibly hard and dull as well. I love learning new things however I usually refrain from science and math. Though, only one week into school, this science class of mine has caused me to have this incredible revelation. In my textbook, Why We Get Sick, there is this quote that really stood out to me.
"Evolution does not favor individuals who act to help others at their own expense"
So relatively speaking, kindness does actually kill. After reading this quote I literally drew a big arrow and wrote "ME" in all caps. This quote hits so close to home for me and I know I am not the only one out there that feels this way.
When it comes down to the supposed "survival of the fittest" those who help others first are generally not those that live the longest or reproduce the most. My textbook makes the example of lemmings who jump off of a cliff. The loyal lemmings who care about their "herd" will jump off a cliff for example when there is not enough food to go around in order to save their fellow lemmings. They are seriously that dedicated. However, those selfish lemmings will not jump. And they are the ones that get to reproduce and create more little, selfish lemmings in the future. For any species, the ultimate goal is to reproduce and keep the population growing. And how do they that? By being selfish little lemmings.
Now transfer this thought process over to human life. Think of all the sayings we have like "it's a dog eat dog world." It is basically suggesting that life is rough and in order to survive, you need to be ruthless or hardened, not kind or caring. Only the most competitive and aggressive people make it to the top. It is seen in the business world and has even entered our classrooms. Everyone is scrambling to be on top because no one wants to fall behind. Is this the kind of world in which we want to live? A world that literally eliminates those that go further to help others?
I think it is time to make a change in a world. I think it is time to put kindness first. Instead of trying to out-do each other, we should work hand in hand. We should should create a world in which instead of pushing someone over to get to the top, we extend a helping hand to bring them back up. We do not want the value of kindness to die out. So let us beat evolution together, let's make kindness a key to survivial.
