It is an error to regard the struggle for existence as the only power
giving shape to the organic world. The struggle for existence is the
main power that causes the origin of new species, but Darwin himself
knew full well that other powers co-operate which give shape to the
forms, habits, and peculiarities of animate things. In his “Descent of
Man” Darwin elaborately treated sexual selection and showed that the
competition of males for females gave rise to the gay colors of the
birds and butterflies and also to the singing voices of birds. There
he also devoted a chapter to social living. Many illustrations on this
head are also to be found in Kropotkin’s book, “Mutual Aid as a Factor
in Evolution.” The best representation of the effects of sociability
are given in Kautsky’s “Ethics and the Materialistic Conception of
History.”
When a number of animals live in a group, herd or flock, they carry on
the struggle for existence in common against the outside world; within
such a group the struggle for existence ceases. The animals which live
socially no longer wage a struggle against each other, wherein the
weak succumb; just the reverse, the weak enjoy the same advantages as
the strong. When some animals have the advantage by means of greater
strength, sharper smell, or experience in finding the best pasture
or in warding off the enemy, this advantage does not accrue only to
these better fitted, but also to the entire group. This combining of
the animals’ separate powers into one unit gives to the group a new
and much stronger power than any one individual possessed, even the
strongest. It is owing to this united strength that the defenseless
plant-eaters can ward off rapacious animals. It is only by means of
this unity that some animals are able to protect their young.
A second advantage of sociability arises from the fact that where
animals live socially, there is a possibility of the division of labor.
Such animals send out scouts or place sentinels whose object it is to
look after the safety of all, while others spend their time either in
eating or in plucking, relying upon their guards to warn them of danger.
Such an animal society becomes, in some respects, a unit, a single
organism. Naturally, the relation remains much looser than the cells of
a single animal body; nevertheless, the group becomes a coherent body,
and there must be some power that holds together the individual members.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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