"Sure, I could get up at dawn, go to a job I hate that does not inspire me creatively whatsoever, or I could get up at noon and learn how to play the sitar" Bill Hicks

Survival of the fittest is such a bleak vision

Are we really just a freakish collision of selfish genes

Selfishly promoting their own individual interests?

Well, maybe, but sometimes those interests are collective

Still, "survival of the fittest" is a phrase easily twisted

By anybody out to justify the meager existence

That some people live with; it's a phrase often enlisted

By parasites eager to benefit from these differences

In the nineteenth century it was aristocratic eugenicists

In the twentieth century, genocidal menaces

Used "survival of the fittest" to justify their death sentences

And gangsters still use it today to degrade their victims

Not to mention the purveyors of disaster capitalism

These are all examples of "Social Darwinism"

But none of this is based on scientific evidence

Merely showing that something exists in a state of nature

Doesn't give it a moral basis; that's a false correlation

Competition can sometimes increase motivation

But evolution is also driven by cooperation

Just ask the dictyostelium nation

Bacteria combined into eukaryotic cells

And became the organelles within their symbiotic shells

And we have fifty trillion of those in our individual selves

So we're like physical spaces where creative collectives dwell

And this applies to the societies we erect as well

'Cause survival of the fittest also applies to groups

And the fittest group makes the best combined moves

So, can't we all just get along, whatever we try and do?

Where's the altruism? Where's the love? Where's the altruism?

All these vultures talkin' 'bout survival of the fittest

But the atruism y'all, come on, where's the altruism?

We need to get together on a common vision!

Group selection just puts me in an altruistic mood

Like: Yeah, love thy neighbour! What's that?

You need some sugar? Okay, come by later!

Of course I'll do you favour; why's that?

'Cause I've got the compassion of a vampire bat

If you need some food, I'll do what I can

So what if we're not related; you're still my man

You're still my sister; I feel high, man!

This universal love is good stuff, god damn!

And you don't have to reciprocate either

Because karma is a sophisticated teacher

Karma isn't just energy waves in the ether!

No, karma's in the way everyone hates a cheater

Cheater detection will keep you in check when

You jump cues and refuse to treat people respectfully

So go ahead, take what you want, run me down

'Cause I believe what goes around comes around

Liars and thieves and those who try to deceive

Get dealt with by the immune systems of society

And survival of the fittest? Don't let it baffle you

Because fitness isn't "fitness", no, it's aptitude

Between the environment and whatever's adapted to it

And in social animals like humans, aptitude is attitude

And my attitude is there's nothing we can't do

As a human family group, as long as we have rules

To keep the cheaters in check; I figure we can't lose

We can go to the moon and back this afternoon

As long as what's bad for me is also bad for you

So let's just all get together and have some food

And put an end to this endless feud – is that cool?

Where's the altruism? Where's the love? Where's the altruism?

All these vultures talkin' 'bout survival of the fittest

But the atruism y'all, come on, where's the altruism?

We need to get together on a common vision!

"And if we evolve the idea, you see, the planet might be more compassionate, and something like heaven might dawn" Bill Hicks