Survival of the Fittest

If I Were King of the Forest!

What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder?       
Courage! 
What makes the dawn come up like thunder?
Courage!
What makes the Hottentot so hot?
What puts the "ape" in apricot?
What have they got that I ain't got?
Courage!

The lion might be king of the jungle, but not every lion is king.

Survival of the fittest applies to the species, not to the individual.  Survival is an individual game, and the fittest individual doesn’t always win .  If you don’t believe this, I offer the CBS TV Show Survivor as Exhibit A.  It was originally expected that the fittest survivor would “win” this TV game show.  Instead the game is such that the strongest members of the tribes are among the first voted out.  The remaining tribe members do not want to sit across from a fitter player in the final tribal vote.  So the fittest player is almost guaranteed not to be the winner of Survivor.  ( For Survivor fans, I do understand about winning immunity challenges.  I am talking about “blindsides”  after the fittest loses an immunity challenge.)

In the game of life, the fittest individual also does not always win.  The fittest species, of which an individual is a member, does.  That should not be a surprise to anyone.  The Major League Baseball batting champ, or the Most Valuable Player,  often does not play for the World Series winning team. Ted Williams of the Red Sox was my boyhood idol and a great player, but he never won a World Series ring.

Acting like survival of the fittest is the only way to win the game of life is an alternate fact.