Poetry / Symbiogenesis

I like the contention, which proves I’m a Social Darwinist at heart, but I defer to truth when I can put my hand on it.  I guess that makes me a smart dinosaur in my own evolution.

Doctor Margulis explored evolution before the creation of the cell and has proved that its evolution is due to the symbiotic behavior of at lest two bacteria.  The chloroplasts of plant cells and the mitochondria of animal cells have different DNA structures then the cells of which they are an in separate part of.  This proves that symbiotic cooperation, rather competition were the first building block of cell evolution.  Mother Earth was in late middle age when she birth Animals and Plants.

Darwin seemed to working in this direction at his death.  His later studies were of worms and corals, which goes in the direction of the interrelation of things.   I read his worm book, not a hint of competition, but rather of cooperation.   He goes on for a full chapter about beneficial work that worms do.   This Social Darwinism stuff just justifies the terrible things we do to each other and is also why it is so popular.  Hell, it is the primary justification for capitalism.

You are right, Margulis does not say that competition is not a driver of evolution, her research is simply more complete and goes further into deep time and then proves that symbiotic cooperation is as an important a factor.  I think Dawkins and Western Scientific thought is so invested in simple competition because it has been and is used as justification for many social inequalities.  Dawkins has tried to paint Margulis as part of a religious movement, which she is not.  Margulis support for Lovelock’s Gaia Concept is another point of contention between them.

Thanks, you gave me something to consider.  This one is important to me.

Both poems are about evolution, the second also about Social Darwinism.  If you want to know about the first, read Margulis, “What is Life.”  If you want to know about the second also read Dawkins “The Selfish Gene.”  Or Google, Social Darwinism…  This poem is about the underlaying science/biology that spawns these societal attitudes and effects individual behavior.  It is not about anybody I know personally.  Thanks for sharing your version of my poem with me.  

My apologies Spriglief, My review is not accurate, I’ve been having trouble with my internet connection (this page cannot be display, messages) and sent the wrong review. I’m sending the review that was meant for this interpretation to correct the first one.

I am looking forward to your review.

One On One Only. Tell your friends no interference. Post new version, take your time.

So you like the second poem?

Thank you.  2 votes for first poem.  0 for second.

I am not an expert in any field, but I did read three books to write this poem.  Dawkins, “The Selfish Gene” is one of them.  In his newest edition of this book he essentially added two chapters to buttress his position in the light of Margulis arguments without citing her once.  Still, the bulk of his book has cells using the same strategies that bullies use behind the Schoolhouse and is as blatant a perversion of Darwins work as any Neo-Social Darwinist in the last half of the 20th century.  Darwin claims that competition is the only driving force behind evolution.  Margulis on the other hand, won a Noble Medal showing how bacterium used symbiotic cooperation to evolve.  Margulis does not make the argument that this behavior is directed.  It simply gives the organisms a higher survival and this skews and continues to skew our evolutionary path.  I believe this argument is valid.

Thank you, I am leaning toward the first poem now.      

Great!  I love anyone who debates science in a reasonable fashion.  Science is there to be debated and evolution is a theory that is being worked and reworked over and over again.  The general ideas are always valid to me (that organisms evolved over time) but methods for this evolution need to be debated.  

Really, Dawkins didn’t site a source for his book?  That’s downright unprofessional.  That’s a good catch on your part. Maybe you should write him and tell him.  

It would be a waste of time.  Do a youtube search of him on the web and you will see what I mean.

Of course his book is well sited but it fails to credit the author whose work made it necessary for him to add two new chapters.  Intellectually, he is a 600-pound guerrilla and intolerant of any viewpoint that conflicts with his own.  Unfortunately, he is backed by Academia, who is also intolerant dissenting scientific thought, like Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis.  If Doctor Margulis had not jumped into that discussion, Lovelock would have been buried under the schoolhouse.

This should not challenge anyone who has taken one biology course.  Did you take physics instead of biology in High School?  No comments on the poems structure, grammar, word choice?  What is you educational background so I can decide if this poem goes over the head of the general public?  I need more the a pat on the back in my reviews.