The Race for Survival

The phrase “Survival of the Fittest” was not as many people think, the creation of Charles Darwin. The phrase was quite literally coined by the economist Herbert Spencer after reading Charles Darwin's 'Origin of the Species'.
In his book 'Principles of Biology (1864),' Herbert said; “This survival of the fittest, which I have sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr Darwin has called 'Natural Selection', or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life”.

This powerful twist on words was used to connect our very survival to the gathering of wealth and the separation of races (not species), the implied message is 'survival of the wealthiest and most military'. It is said that Nazism and Eugenics was a result of this perverse justification of greed. There are of course many species, but only in fact one human race.
Darwin was a student of nature, and there is only one thing that is separate from nature, that being; 'human nature'. Money is a human concept designed to avoid the desperate necessities of life in the wild, through the collective planning and organisation of resources.

So what does separate 'human nature' from 'nature'?
Simply that we can talk, and so communicate concepts of the effects of our actions on nature. This itself depends on the first concept communicated being; – 'Our survival, does not depend on being the fittest if we can cooperate'. Thus we chose not to be subject to nature by taking an objective view.
There is concern in the world that the explosive growth of our obviously fit population has become a threat the Earth's ability to sustain us. Thus we need to compete even more vigorously for the dwindling resources. This appears to reaffirm a return to the base condition of nature, that of conflict, mistrust and separation. It is even suggested by some self proclaimed enlightened minds that 'war' is a natural and inevitable method of culling the population.
It is plain however, for anyone who wishes to see, that the poor areas of the world have the largest population growth, and that wealth attracts the most potential mates. Thus the wealthy have the most sex and yet the poor have the most children. The Earth is easily capable of feeding every person alive today, except for bad management of available land. Perhaps a more natural contraception would be a looser grip on wealth and education?

For our ancestors to rise to a position of cultivating nature rather than being subject to it, an understanding was essential of the five elements which do determine survival;

1) Air (fire),
2) Water,
3) Food (earth),
4) Shelter (wood),
and; the 5th which is where our problems start.
5) is cooperation itself (Metal).

Whether this is the cooperation of man with a tool, the cooperation of two substances to create a third, or two or more people working together. This element is often debated or even overlooked completely, but it is what gave us power over nature. This element is the home of human magic (creativity). It is the human mind and the element which we have a responsibility to embrace and master. To fear it and suppress awareness of it can lead to grave side effects. It is simply Quintessential. (Quint – being Latin for 'five' and essential – meaning 'essence or element')
Modern humans coexisted with Neanderthals on Earth for at least ninety thousand years. For a long time we assumed they died out because they were some kind of sub-standard branch of humanity.

In 1921 H.G Wells described Neanderthal – “Hairy or grisly, with a big face like a mask , great brow ridges and no forehead, clutching an enormous flint, and running like a baboon with his head forward, not like a man, with his head up, he must have been a fearsome creature for our forefathers to come upon…”
Then in 1957 anatomists William Straus and A.J.E Cave re-examined the La Chapelle fossil and realized Neanderthal man did not walk stooped with bent knees on the outside of his feet, these were the remains of an old Neandertal man, who had been suffering from advanced arthritis until his death. He had been lowered into a prepared trench by companions or family, and during his life, he would have needed to have been cared for long after his arthritis-racked body could no longer fend for itself. Since then we have found that Neandertal was generally larger than modern human in both, physical strength and brain size.

The only substantial difference between the two branches of humanity was simply 'art'. Archaeologists found cave paintings and burial remains of ‘double wise man’ (Homo Sapien) in France that dated back 35,000 years. Still today tribes people believe it is essential to perform rituals of creative visualisation before hunting. This art illustrates our ability to create through the imagination of our minds eye and today nearly all of our environmental surroundings are the product of this ability.
If we were able to show a mobile phone to a someone of five hundred years ago they probably would have said it was magic. With each generation we progressively cocoon ourselves from the forces of nature that gave birth to us, but have we yet seen the full potential of our magic in the environment we are manipulating?

There is a great misconception in the modern world regarding the potential of 'magic'. Magic has become synonymous with illusion and trickery. No longer is it a natural attribute of modern human since it was redefined by the Catholic Encyclopaedia as;
‘The art of performing actions beyond the power of man and with aid of powers other than the divine’. And condemned it as ‘a grievous sin against the virtue of religion, because all magical performances, if undertaken seriously, are based on the expectation of interference by demons or lost souls’. Thus human magic was regulated and restricted to acceptable boundaries of understanding and exploration.
The ignorance and superstition of our dark ages led to the unjust execution and torcher of many innocents for no other reason than fear of the unknown. The modern term ‘magic’ originally comes from the Greek ‘magos’ which denoted priests and seers from the East, notably Persia, India, Babylon and Egypt. For example in the Greek Gospel of Mathew, the 'Magi from the east' who follow the star of Bethlehem.