We’ve all heard the scientific pseuds and frauds clamoring that violence ultimately wins. Altruism (caring for others) has no place in evolution and survival, according to clods like Richard Dawkins. It’s survival of the fittest, blood all the way, no quarter given. The “selfish genes” claw their way to mastery.

Dawkins is no fool but he is earth-shatteringly wrong (and won’t admit it of course). As I said, he’s not stupid but he is arrogant beyond belief and hundreds like him: they are RIGHT and everyone else who has a different perspective are fools of frauds.

Such intransigence is the last refuge of the ignorant!

The truth, the REAL truth, turns out to be very different. Far from being the most violent and deadly of species, giving no thought for others, not caring, not being compassionate, humans have come to the top of the pile because they are KIND.

Not what you’ve been reading, is it? But consider this:

Homo sapiens (us humans) are the sole surviving race of humans, out of a number of other humans species. We made it through; all the others died out. Why? 

The evidence is overwhelming… it’s because we cooperated, cared and supported each other, not because of violence. Indeed, the truly violent human species, like the Neanderthals, have utterly died out. We have not.

Where did I get this important new information? New Scientist journal,27 Nov 2021. An article entitled The Last Human posits the question: Of all the other types of humans that existed, why are we the only ones left?

Author Kaye Ravilious goes on to explain:

Humans today are uniquely alone. For the majority of the existence of Homo sapiens, we shared the planet with many other types of human. At the time when our lineage first evolved in Africa some 300,000 years ago, there were at least five others. And if you were going to place a bet on which one would outlast all the rest, you might not have put your money on us.

“Other human species” would have included the Neanderthals, of course; Homo erectus; Homo heidelbergensis; Homo luzonensis; Homo naledi; and Homo floriensis (the tiny humans, nicknamed the hobbit).

So why are we different and still here? According to current theory, we not only lived in larger groups than other humans but we had an unparalleled ability to form alliances beyond our immediate group.

Homo sap has prevailed because (apparently) we depended on others, shared, felt compassion and experienced empathy. Brain power was not the source of our success. Other humans had that. But we had THE MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS!

There was a neediness for human company and companionship, according to Penny Spikins, an archeologist at the University of York, UK. This gave us a drive to connect with others. Cooperation followed almost automatically, one supposes.

Networking and connectivity made us more resilient, so the anthropological science says. If we turn the clock back 2 million years—to our first-known ape progenitors, the species Australopithecus—affection and emotions seem to have emerged. Here, we find the earliest known examples of possible care for the sick or injured hominids.

For example, individuals with skeletal injury that would have caused great pain and immobility; the kiss of death, you would think, in that remote, hostile past. Yet they survived many years beyond the injury, clearly indicating some kind of care, support and nurture.

One example was a teenage boy, ridden with a spinal tumor.

“They [the sick and injured] almost certainly received some level of help, being given food and protection, to survive,” says Penny Spikins, whose book exploring these ideas Hidden Depths: The origins of human connection is due to be published next year.

One skeleton found in Shanidar cave in Iraq and dated to about 50,000 years ago shows signs of multiple severe injuries, including the loss of the right hand and forearm. But that individual lived on for 10 to 15 years after these incapacitating injuries! Moreover he was carefully buried when he died later, aged 40 – 50. Somebody must have been helping him get through.

Benefits To The Group

As well as aiding the survival of individuals, this investment in care and cooperation brought benefits for the tribe. It enabled humans to hunt large or dangerous animals and accept the risk of possible injury in doing so. And it also allowed potentially longer lifespans, enabling grandparents to be involved in infant care, as well as passing on knowledge and skills.

This, to me, is the arch reason why Homo sap conquered all. Instead of a life of extreme violence and an inevitable early death, there was time to grow, accumulate knowledge and perfect the skills needed to hunt successfully, harness resources and then, finally of course, to settle down and develop civilization.

As I remarked in my book Aging Without Growing Old (originally How To Get Healthy For Your Next 100 Years), p. 2,

“The evolved mature adult, which we call middle-aged, may be just about the most advanced thing existing on the planet! That creature is so full of knowledge and skills that he or she is able to conquer the environment.

Middle-aged and wise individuals may be the very reason Mankind has become such a successful species. Collectively, older people have developed, held and transmitted the knowledge that has enabled us to survive and flourish as a species, by cleverly learning to extract resources which are beyond the reach of most other animals, so giving us the edge…”

So it comes back to the fact that nurture and not nastiness are the pro-survival traits that have made us what we are.

Those who have excused themselves with the aphorism “Nature is red in tooth  and claw” are scheduled to die out, sooner rather than later, while the rest of us will flourish and continue to extend our reach.

Is Friendliness A Gene?

You might think this is a stupid idea. But wait! There are some clues that this ability to show compassion and care might just have its origin in genes. I’m not thinking so much of a compassionate gene, but maybe one which expressed as lack of fear…

Let me introduce you to the medical condition called “Williams syndrome”. These are without doubt the most engaging, most happy-go-lucky kids you’ll ever meet. Yet it’s all down to a rare genetic mishap.

They know no fear and so do not hold back in the presence of other human beings; they are hyper-social (if only there was a vaccine for that!) It’s just possible—maybe—that our earliest ancestors had some genetic slip of that sort… and began to cooperate and prosper because of it!

Williams syndrome comes about when there is deletion of tiny scraps of genetic information, particularly surrounding a gene called BAZ1B. It’s a gene that is of great importance in the growth of neural crest cells, which eventually develop into neural tissue, facial features, teeth and adrenal glands.

Well, so what? I’m glad you asked that! Because mutations of gene BAZ1B have been found to be much more common in Homo sapiens dead remains than in any other early humans, including the Neanderthals and another human group called Denisovians.

In other words, here is a gene variation which would make us more tolerant of strangers and more likely to flow warmth, trust and cooperation to those around us! Is this how our ascent to the top of the evolutionary flagpole started?

I think it could be.

Meantime, do right by each other for this Christmas—and for all seasons. It’s your biological imperative (meaning Nature’s duty) and, despite the bumps in the road, it is the correct, saftest path to the future and immortality.

To your good health,

Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor