Word: selfishnesses
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...Wyatt Emmerich's April 11th review of Richard Dawkins's book, The Selfish Gene, is a masterpiece, even for The Crimson, of inaccuracy, purposeful misinterpretation, and downright untruth. Emmerich shows a profound ignorance of the book, evolutionary theory in general, and the aims and structures of the "sociobiological" camp...
Dawkins clearly does not think that genes are conscious beings. He does, however, think they are selfish, in the particular and welldefined sense in which he uses the word. Any student who has progressed beyond a superficial understanding of natural selection can understand what Dawkins is driving at. They might not agree, but they would not produce the distorted, fanciful account of the book that Emmerich has dreamed...
...drooling Fay-Wray-hypnotised Kong. Give me Bad Company any day. But to get back to the unfortunately surnamed Mr. Bangs' image, I guess we're supposed to believe that somehow heavy metal has become deader than any dodo, or at least lost its teeth, claws and selfish-gene nastiness and become a lumbering, well-meaning vegetable-eater with about as much magnetism as those scurrying, tree-climbing ancestors of ours busily devouring leaves and trying not to be devoured by beasts of the jungle. Brontosaurus indeed. Junk. And forget about Mr. Bangs because Bad Company has just brought...
...THIS TYPE of writing that discredits The Selfish Gene. Dawkins gives the impression throughout the book that he is simply a nice zoologist who is attempting to simplify complex scientific data so more people can understand and appreciate it. But then he goes off on wild tangents, stringing together stupid analogies and speculating about the similarities between purine molecules and some futuristic society in Andromeda out of a science fiction novel he happened to find interesting. This type of rambling based on half-baked ideas that should have been kept in the oven doesn't exactly constitute the stuff...
...genes help determine our height and weight. This is obvious. But to extend the argument beyond its scientific base and conclude that there must be complex genetic traits for altruism and aggression in human beings is going one step too far, too soon. The problem with The Selfish Gene is that it plays around with a subject which is controversial enough when dealt with honestly and factually. When, in the last chapter, Dawkins finally acknowledges that humans can "rebel" against their "selfish" genes, he fails to erase the overwhelming implications of the preceding ten chapters, and the result...