The Lessons of History

My notes

Biology and History

Nature does not care about American Declaration of Independence nor French Revolutionary Declaration of the Rights of Man.

We are not free nor equal. We are all born unfree and unequal: subject to our physical and psychological heredity, and to the customs and traditions of our group; diversely endowed in health and strength, in mental capacity and qualities of character. Nature loves difference as the necessary material of selection and evolution; identical twins differ in a hundred ways, and no two peas are alike.

Nature loves differences, and variety, it uses it to evolve.

Nature smiles at union of freedom and equalities in our utopias.

For freedom and equality are sworn and everlasting enemies, and when one prevails the other dies. Leave men free, and their natural inequalities will multiply almost geometrically, as in England and America in the nineteenth century under laissez-faire.

Only the man who is below the average in economic ability desires equality; those who are conscious of superior ability desire freedom.

Therefore [[Freedom and equality are everlasting enemies]]. We must create an environment that promote unequality and restrict freedom.

Utopias of equality are biologically doomed, and the best that the amiable philosopher can hope for is an approximate equality of legal justice and educational opportunity. A society in which all potential abilities are allowed to develop and function will have a survival advantage in the competition of groups. This competition becomes more severe as the destruction of distance intensifies the confrontation of states.

[[So the conservative who resists change is as valuable as the radical who proposes it — perhaps as much more valuable as roots are more vital than leaves]]