Look at Chuck Darwin and His Glorious Beard
Introduction
As you know, this is mandatory reading for anyone interested in Science, Evolution, and Gender Dynamics. However, it is not easy to read, which is partly why everyone has opinions on Evolution but very few have read this book.
I listened to the Audible version that is narrated by Richard Dawkins, who is the famous author of “The Selfish Gene”. After “On the Origin of Species”, “The Selfish Gene” should be the second book that every student of Evolutionary Psychology reads. It offers the profound insight that our bodies and minds are simply vehicles designed by our genes to serve their goal of replication. Our genes control us by pumping powerful drugs through our veins we call EMOTIONS. But back to Darwin’s book…
Mandatory and Difficult Reading
Richard Dawkins is a fantastic narrator. It’s the content of the book that makes this challenging to read. Old Dick Dawkins does his best to make it entertaining though. It’s more of a technical and scientific report than a “book” as we think of it. Darwin calls the book an “abstract”. I’m highly educated with a Doctorate of Law, but even for me the wording used, and the exclusive focus on non-human subjects, made this book challenging to pay attention to.
This book is somewhat similar to “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler. Nearly everyone has an opinion on Hitler, but almost no one has actually read the book he wrote on all his plans for Germany. “Mein Kampf” is famously difficult to read, mostly due to the meandering delivery and verbosity. Even Benito Mussolini, the fascist dictator of Italy, friend of Hitler, and ally of Germany, described “Mein Kampf” as “a boring tome that I have never been able to read.”
Hitler verbally dictated the entire book to Rudolf Hess while in prison, which might explain the unorthodox writing style. What was fascinating about Hitler’s book is that it contained all of Hitler’s hatred for the Jews and his plans to militarily expand Germany’s territory. Usually politicians try to hide their true intentions, but Hitler did no such thing! Hitler published the book in 1925, which was 8 years before he came to power. Just because it was hard to read, none of the leaders of Europe read the book, and they were blindsided by Hitler’s deception and actions leading up to World War 2. But “Mein Kampf” made all of Hitler’s plans extremely clear. The leaders of Europe would have known Hitler’s mind, IF THEY ONLY READ HIS TEDIOUS BOOK!
My point is that some books are mandatory reading if you want to be educated on a subject. And you have to read them no matter how difficult and dry they are. To understand Hitler and World War 2, “Mein Kampf” is mandatory reading. To understand women, one must first understand Evolution. To understand Evolution, “On the Origin of Species” is mandatory reading.
Personally, I am interested in Human and Primate evolution, and neither is discussed in “On the Origin of Species”. It focuses on the much safer topics of plants and non-primate animals. This is probably because applying Natural Selection to humans would have been too controversial for Darwin to present in 1859, while also considering this was early in his career. Darwin did not work up the courage to apply his theory of Natural Selection to humans until 12 years later, when he published The Descent of Man in 1871.
Even though I have a very enthusiastic interest in Darwin and Evolution, my brain mightily struggled to stay focused on this content while listening to the Audible version. It is probably better read from a book than listened to. However, the evidence and arguments Darwin presents here will cause anyone with an intelligent and open mind to see the force of Natural Selection all around us. It is an undeniable and self-evident phenomenon that can only be missed because of willful ignorance.
The Theory of Natural Selection
This book is Darwin’s presentation of his theory of Natural Selection. Natural Selection states that all lifeforms on the planet evolve slowly based on parental inheritance of traits that are beneficial to survival and replication. In every species on the planet, there are small variations in the physical traits of the members. Members who possess traits that increase their own survival and replication, even slightly, will proliferate their genes at a higher rate. Other members that do not possess these traits will be disadvantaged, and will spread their genes at a lower rate. Over a long period time, while organisms struggle for existence, the advantageous traits will increase and the disadvantageous traits will become extinct. Through this process organisms change and form new species over time.
Darwin states that if any part of an organism on the planet can be proven to not have been gradually evolved over time, his theory would be destroyed. He explains that it is difficult for humans to understand how a structure as complex as an eye could not be the product of intelligent creation. He then discusses how such complex structures, like the eye or the honeycomb of a beehive, could evolve gradually through Natural Selection.
Darwin uses most of the book to discuss the experiments of other Naturalists, and himself, on plant and animal species that prove Natural Selection. This is all quite boring, unless you’re a super-nerd like Darwin that enjoys germinating plants over the course of 82 days with rigorous observation. He also addresses the significant challenges that his theory faces, and attempts to overcome them through argument and evidence.
Darwin is very careful not to discuss God or humans very much in this book. He talks about a “creator”, but doesn’t even come close to attacking God or religion. By all historical accounts, Darwin was a real nice and pleasant bloke, which stood in contrast to his famous controversial theory. His intention to avoid any discussion of Human Evolution is apparent, but it is the giant pink elephant in the room that is on everyone’s minds.
Relevance to Modern Men and Gender Dynamics
What is impressive to me, is that this book was published 164 years ago, yet it really hasn’t changed anyone’s religious beliefs. In fact, I have read accounts that people were less religious in Darwin’s time than they are now in 2023. Richard Dawkins claims that England is no longer very religious, but that the USA is extremely religious.
I’m not going to take a position on religion, but a complete denial of Evolution is dangerous to men. It is impossible to understand the true nature of masculinity and the desires of women without accepting our Evolution over long periods of time. For example, some Christians believe the world is only 6,000 years old, which isn’t enough time to see how the Pleistocene environment we evolved for was different than our modern society.
Men must accept Evolution and Natural Selection as true to understand masculinity and women. The fundamental issue that most men have is being “Mr. Nice Guy” and not understanding why women don’t want that. If we don’t accept Evolution, we might think humans are adapted to live in our highly unnatural, safe, domesticated, and neutered modern environment. This will make understanding women and masculinity very confusing and difficult.
What society and religion tells us about women does not lead to the results we want. To understand what actually works with women, we must have a firm acceptance and understanding of Natural Selection and Human Evolution. When we study the environment humans evolved to live in during ancestral times, it becomes obvious why women don’t feel gut-level attraction for the “Nice Guy”. This is because being a nice, gentle man wasn’t very useful to women in our harsh, competitive, and dangerous ancestral environment.
Being “nice” didn’t bring meat home from the hunt to a mother and her children when they were starving. Being “nice” didn’t protect her and the children when other men tried to kidnap and rape her. Being “nice” was not something she and her children could rely on to survive. So Natural Selection resulted in women preferring men that exhibited traits that were not so “nice”, like aggression, dominance, confidence, leadership, brute strength, tall height, large size, etc…These are what we call the “Alpha” traits.
Alpha traits in men led to the increased survival rate of mothers and children he was aligned with. Natural Selection increased the sexual desire in women of our species for males that exhibited Alpha traits because the children of these women survived and replicated more often. Also, the male sons of these women inherited more Alpha traits from their fathers, which increased the existence of Alpha traits in men of the species. Thus, the female desire for Alpha traits, and the presence of Alpha traits in males, reinforced each other and proliferated exponentially in humans over time.
Modern culture indoctrinates a woman’s forebrain into believing she wants a “Nice Guy”. A woman’s thoughts, words, and language come from her forebrain. She’s not lying. She REALLY BELIEVES she wants a Nice Guy!
However, if we understand Evolution, we know that her forebrain is just ONE part of her, but it’s not ALL of her. Since we evolved from oceanic organisms and reptiles, she also has a fully functioning and independent reptile brain, in addition to a mammalian brain. Her ATTRACTION MECHANISM exists in the ancient and primitive reptile brain. Have you ever realized that all reptiles experience the same feeling of ATTRACTION that we do and find a way to mate without ever thinking or speaking a word?
All of these parts of her brain act independently of each other and have different motives and drives. When she SAYS she wants a “Nice Guy”, this doesn’t mean she’s actually going to choose a “Nice Guy”. She may really want a “Nice Guy”, but she’s going to choose the man she feels ATTRACTED to, and that’s not the “Nice Guy”. She feels ATTRACTED to the Alpha male. The other parts of her brain that DON’T SPEAK, have far more power over her than her forebrain does, and these parts will dictate her actual behavior. We like to believe we make logical decisions, but really we make EMOTIONAL decisions.
Her hindbrain, and emotional drives, are the product of millions of years of Natural Selection that reinforced a preference for Alpha male traits. So, if you want women to have sex with you, give her hindbrain what it wants, NOT what her forebrain wants!
When viewed through the lens of Evolution, Hypergamy and what women want becomes extremely clear and logical. THANKS CHUCK!