Survival

Survival is one of my principles. Survival of myself, my faculties, my friends, my ideas, my beliefs. See a pattern here? It is all about me; which is fine in some ways, the concepts of self and autonomy and determination are important to me - but it is also a very selfish way of subsisting. Be Strong to Be Useful, as opposed to just Being Strong.

Humans are social animals, and we evolve (and survive!) through social interactions. C.S. Lewis said that "friendship has no survival value. But it adds value to survival." That's true in a way, but so false in many others - humans came together into tribes because the life-expectancy of each member of the group was higher than an individual on their own. And though that contributed to the survival of the species, fulfilling Darwin's theory of natural selection was not the goal, survival of the self was the goal, you cared for the fallen member because a) If they recovered, they added to your survival, and b) If you did it for them, then they should do it for you - both "altruistic" reasons were founded on the philosophy of Saving Your Own Ass.

Again, pretty selfish. And again, there's nothing wrong with that. And maybe that's where it's supposed to stop, and young wet-behind-the-ears idealists like me maintain romantic (and arbitrary) concepts like honour and loyalty. But I think chivalry is important. I think that survival is a base instinct, but humans are capable of so much more than mere survival - look at art, and music, and literature - these things have no survival value, but most definitely add value to survival.

Sun Tzu said that "A great general is not one who wins, but who excels at winning with ease." I find people should existence beyond just surviving, and into prosperity* - where their efforts have produced things that add value to survival. It is obviously a matter of degrees, about how high one chooses to climb - and about what society chooses to value, but in my case, I want to excel at surviving. That, however, sounds like an oxymoron, so I'll rephrase: "To Be and To Last." Or, in the original French; Etre et Durer.

*n. Flourishing condition, thriving condition, success