Tennyson, wrestling with a friend’s death, drew a contrast between concepts like having a caring God above or love being creation’s ultimate principle on the one hand versus on the other the stark apparent reality of “nature red in tooth and claw.” The dilemma seems somehow just as relevant today as in the nineteenth century, even though some might cringe at the religious couching of the thought.
Rising above tooth and claw heroically expresses quintessential humanity. Paradoxically, when we sacrifice our own personal drive to self-preservation and self-advancement to the greater good, to culture, to community, that is the time we become most adaptable. And following Darwin’s insight–for some, the greatest tooth-and-claw man of all–that adaptability would make us best fitted to survive and thrive.
The sad thing is when humans in their prodigality slip back toward tooth and claw. Whether taking the form of street violence, financial incentives for athletes to injure their opponents, or unrestrained predacious capitalism (and the communist and fascist totalitarianisms of the last century were even worse examples), we become less human and less alive when go down that road.