Another Myth That Even Smart People Believe

In a previous post, I mentioned one of my favorite myths that even smart people believe. These are not true urban myths, which usually involve someone stealing your organs or a deadly spider in your hairdo or a murderer who is CALLING FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE! I don't think anyone with half a brain really believes those kind of urban myths any more, especially since it's become so popular to debunk them.

I'm talking about the little factoids that people repeat to justify some prosaic little life lesson. In the last exciting episode, we (meaning I) talked about the myth that you only use a small percentage of your brain. Which is supposed to prove that you are a genius / ESP master waiting to explode. Too bad it isn't true, and that you're already using all you got.

This time, I'd like to shoot for one of my favorites, that "human beings are the only animals that kill their own species." Aww man, ain't that the truth. We're so evil compared to the animal kingdom, who live in peaceful harmony all the time, holding hands and sucking rainbow-colored lollipops as they belt out John Denver tunes.

Except that it isn't true at all. Animals are selfish little beasties, just like us. They protect the animals whose genetic material they share, such as immediate relatives, particularly children. The rest they don't give a crap about.

It depends on the animal, of course. Some are adorable, like ducks, who mate for life. Others less so, like lions, who often kill other lions' babies. Say a male lion (let's call him Leo) gets a new mate. Say that the lioness already has a bunch of cubs by some other poor sucker (let's call him Lucky). Leo will not hesitate to kill off Lucky's and the lioness' little lads and lassies. Why? Because he has to clear the way for him and his kids, of course. Make Room for Daddy!

In fact, infanticide is a pretty normal part of life for a lot of animals. Dolphins, who typically win awards for cutest animals EVAH, will sometimes take young ones and drown them. No one knows why. Seriously -- I wouldn't make that up. (Well, OK, I might, but this time I'm not, I swear.)

So where does this myth come from? It's clearly an attempt to to take humans down a peg. I'm usually in favor of that kind of thing. But you gotta use some better facts. Like destoying the planet for the sake of driving preposterously large cars -- that kind of thing.

And on the face of it, it sounds reasonable, doesn't it. It seems like animals have to do whatever they can to survive as a species, while we have the luxury of killing each other off and not really batting an eye, species-survival-wise. But evolution doesn't work that way, unfortunately. Each animals seeks to ensure its survival and that of immediate relatives. There's an inborn need to see your genetic material survive, but not necessarily those of mere species-mates.

Not that the example of these animals should be a justification for our behavior. That would be falling into what psychologists call the "naturalistic fallacy," which is the assumption that anything "natural" is inherently good. You see this on products everywhere -- look , these have natural ingredients! So you know they're good! Of course, cyanide is a natural ingredient. Not necessarily good, at least for humans.

So I'm not saying we should feel OK about killing each other because animals do. And I'm not saying that we should feel bad for killing each other because animals don't (in part because they do). I'm thinking that maybe we shouldn't compare ourselves to animals at all. It's kind of a different thing. A different ANIMAL, even! HA HA HA HA! HA ha ha ... ha ha ... ha ... (sigh).