“From the purely biological point of view it is unfortunate that the destructive side of technique has advanced so very much more rapidly than the creative side. In one moment a man may kill 500,000 people, but he cannot have children any quicker than in the days of our savage ancestors. If a man could have 500,000 children as quickly as by an atomic bomb he can destroy 500,000 enemies we might, at the cost of enormous suffering, leave the biological problem to the struggle for existence and the survival of the fittest. But in the modem world the old mechanism of evolution can no longer be relied upon (Russell 21)”
In this quote Russell asserts that humanity has reached a new point in it’s evolutionary development, this being due to the technological advancements in our ability to bomb this planet into a pile of space rocks. Russell’s main idea in this essay is to showcase that mankind has lost its ability to actualize our most primitive needs due to rapid modernization, however he brings this entire point to a head by claiming that humans have reached an age in which the laws of Darwin no longer apply. He claims that the vast destruction that modern weaponry can accomplish completely replaces the previous evolutionary model of survival –a model in which those with the most desirable traits are likely to survive, not those who happen to be sitting inside a tank. As a result of modern warfare, and the fact that humans cannot procreate as fast as they can murder each other, Russell subsequently concludes that we have reached a Darwinian shift. In my opinion this is an astute observation, and one that I have spoken about in the past. Humanity is indeed reaching a new age of evolution, in which being able to provide food, shelter and safety for yourself and family is by and large determined on to what socioeconomic background you come from, and not if you can fight off a saber-toothed tiger with a spear.
Max Motchan