VIDEO: GZA, Genius & The True “Law of the Jungle”
Those of us who have followed the artistry (and sometimes not) of hip hop music and culture know that the Law of the Jungle is often times a fundamental philosophical and economic precept. A thought process and moral stance adapted from the perceived character of American capitalist culture and a Darwinian relationship to nature. This point is illustrated magnificently in a You Tube remix video accompanied by the brilliant wordplay of the hip hop artist GZA on his song Animal Planet (watch the video). But, what if the Darwinian mantra echoed in the streets - including Wall Street, “survival of the fittest”, was wrong? Flex your mind on this: “Charles Darwin went on to describe ’survival of the fittest’ in large part as the competition for scarce resources, [and] as the basis for the evolution of the species. Contrary to those models of Nature as innately, intensely, and almost exclusively competitive, more recent scientific study has illuminated the powerful role of mutuality, synergy, coexistence, and cooperation in the natural world and the more accurate picture of life that presents.”
Case in point: The pollination of crops by honeybees is crucial to the production of 1/3 of all the foods we eat (watch a video clip)… “Nature fosters collaboration and reciprocity. Competition in Nature exists…but it has limits, and the true law of survival is ultimately cooperation.” (All quotes are from, The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist)
