“I am because we are”

Here is an old African proverb that could affirm group selection: “I am because we are.” The “Great Man” theory of history? Although we do have have our vital heroes, why not the “Group Selection” theory of history? All history is biography? It is more the case that all history is the biology of group selection. Individuals stand on the shoulders of the groups they live with, which protect and advance them. Why does rational simplifying always have to be “terrible” simplifying? Group selection continues to be reported in the popular and academic press as leading to negative “cults” of ethnocentrism, or worse---ironically, or rather hypocritically, this is usually pushed by groups seeking dominance over other groups. The racial imperialism of nations in the past does not represent ethnopluralism, which sees imperialism as a counterfeit of human nature, against localism, variety, and slowing human evolution.

Territoriality and ethnocentrism are a basic part of actual human nature, it prevents chaos and promotes social stability. As anthropologist Roger Pearson said, territoriality helps localize and order the population so necessary environmental adaptations are able to accumulate over generations. Pearson once succinctly defined group selection this way: “ In the course of evolution, man generally collaborates on a group basis, and even though mutations occur in individuals it is the phylogenetic continuum, the breeding group and gene pool that transmits theses mutations to future generations.” ( Mankind Quarterly, 1991) One of our greatest scientists, E.O. Wilson, has recently reaffirmed group selection as the central unit of selection in his book “The Social Conquest of the Earth.”

Given human nature, this is the basis for thinking in terms of ethnopluralism as the most natural and workable social or political structure. In the case of the United States this can be gradually accommodated by our Constitution, with its natural separation of powers and states. Separations naturally happen anyway when groups are too large or too different from one another, and not always peacefully. Cooperative competition, concordant discord, is what we can best expect, given human nature---and what is wrong with that?