Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Evolution and the Meaning of Life

CHAPTER TWELVE
The Cranes of Culture
1. THE MONKEY'S UNCLE MEETS THE MEME
What is the question now placed before society with a glib assurance
the most astounding? The question is this—Is man an ape or an angel?
My Lord, I am on the side of the angels.
—BENJAMIN DISRAELI, speech at Oxford, 1864
Darwin himself saw clearly that if he claimed that his theory applied to one
particular species, this would upset its members in ways he dreaded, so he
held back at first. There is almost no mention of our species in Origin of
Species—aside from its important role as a crane in artificial selection. But of
course this fooled no one. It was clear where the theory was heading, so
Darwin worked hard to produce his own, carefully thought-out version before
the critics and skeptics could bury the issue in misrepresentations and alarm
calls: The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871). There was
no doubt at all, Darwin observed: we—Homo sapiens— are one of the
species over which evolutionary theory reigns. Seeing that there was little
hope of denying this fact, some Darwin-dreaders have sought a champion
who might deliver a pre-emptive strike, disabling the dangerous idea before it
ever got a chance to spread across the isthmus that connects our species with
all the others. Whenever they have found someone announcing the demise of
Darwinism (or neo-Darwinism, or the modern synthesis), they have egged
him on, hoping that this time the revolution would be real. Self-styled
revolutionaries have struck early and often, but, as we have seen, they have
managed only to invigorate their target, deepening our understanding of it
while enhancing it with complexities undreamt of by Darwin himself.
Falling back, then, some of the foes of Darwin's dangerous idea have
planted themselves firmly on the isthmus, like Horatio at the bridge, intent