BEYOND DARWIN

    Since Darwin at the least, or long before,
    Survival of the fittest seemed the way
    That Nature led inevitably to war:
    Conflict and competition ruled the day.

    And thus implicitly we’re taught to beat
    Out rivals in our struggle to the top
    Because we’re either eaten or we eat,
    No other way: this carnage cannot stop.

    Or is there a humane alternative,
    A further step on evolution’s path
    By which to live and also to let live,
    A way of peace and concord, not of wrath?

         Cooperation is the road less taken,
         That way by which the sane and wise awaken.

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