All too often, we will admire Nature for the beauty it produces, for the complexities it displays and for the variation it generates, but Nature also represents a cruel world. It’s a harsh reality – a dystopian state.
If we are to ask what a dystopian world would look like, we would quite likely point to a controlled, ruthless world where the individual is subsumed by a brutal, all-powerful ruling body. The individual has no value, existing only for the greater good.
We might be hard pushed to disentangle this understanding of dystopia from the way Nature operates.
Nature is an evolutionary system in which we live for our genes and are ruled by them.
Cleverly – rather sneakily – although we consider ourselves to be living our own lives and doing what is in our own best interests, we are, in fact, living for the greater benefit of our genes. They are pulling the strings on our existence.
We think we are free; we are not: we think we have autonomy; we do not.
Our genes are the ruling elite, the controlling figureheads – both worshipped and feared. They determine what we can and cannot do. We do as they command. In so doing, we sustain their existence.
For us, it may seem that staying alive, living our lives, is the sole purpose of our existence, but in reality, we live as we are ordered to do so.
Our genes prosper through reproductive activity, with genetic mutation driving change and evolutionary progress. If a mutation confers benefits, it will be attractive and therefore more reproductively successful.
The system means that only the fittest – most useful – survive, those most attuned to their environment. All else is considered worthless and unnecessary and is discarded.
Our genes, in upholding the system, are ruthless in their managerial control. And yet, other than maintaining their survival, we have no insight into why they act as they do.
Strangely, this may be quite normal – many dystopias do not seem to have a purpose. Their main aim seems to be to merely sustain themselves. Unlike utopian societies, which seek to provide their populations with contentment and fulfilment, dystopias do not have this – or any other – greater ambition or goal.
Nature also lacks any overarching purpose – or, at least, it doesn’t as far as we can tell. It seems that in this dystopia, the world is a laboratory – a place where Nature does experiments in evolution. We have no idea what, ultimately, it is trying to achieve, other than the sustaining of its existence.
Unlike other organisms, which have mostly acquiesced to Nature’s hegemony, humanity has sought to break free from the shackles of this dystopian existence and establish an alternative world free from Nature’s autocratic rule.
We are the Orwellian Winston Smith of our dystopia, seeking our freedoms and trying to create our own meaning in life.
Humanity’s attempted means of escape has been through the establishment of societal living. By creating this alternative world, we aim to avoid, overcome, or nullify the dictates of Nature and thereby gain some control over our lives.
It has been a very gradual, piecemeal breakaway.
As such, until very recently, humanity’s main use for society was largely defensive. We sought to shield ourselves from the savagery of Nature. That was the basis for establishing a societal existence. By living together, we became stronger, safer and more accomplished. We no longer had to live according to the whim of Nature. We could actually resist Nature. Societal living gave us some self-control and independence.
But now, we are moving on to the next stage of our progressive campaign for self-governance. We are now making offensive moves in order to challenge the very rule of Nature. We have tasted freedom, and we want more of it. We no longer want to be ruled by remote, unaccountable genes.
Looking around, we can see that change is happening. Advances in the way we live mean we are less susceptible to changes in our environment; advances in medicine mean we live longer and healthier lives; advances in our human relations mean we are not so combative towards one another. Such developments will only increase.
As technology advances and as we venture into areas such as genetic engineering, we will further challenge the dystopian world of Nature. As we gain freedoms from our genes, individuals can act more as individuals rather than just as genetic vehicles.
Nature, it seems, does not have the same level of totalitarian control over us.
We may, of course, question whether or not this is a good thing. After all, we may only end up replacing Nature’s dystopia with a dystopia of our own creation. There are no guarantees that it will be a better world; there are no guarantees that such a world will actually function.
And there is one final, rather worrying, consideration. This attempted breakout is a work in progress. Our freedom is by no means assured. Dystopian worlds do not easily give up their domination. They have a tendency to fight back, a practice of stamping down heavily on independent, challenging, subversive movements.
Who knows what that would mean for humanity!
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