Law of the Jungle

The Law of the Jungle. 

Though mankind emerged from the animal state 10,000 years ago, this phrase has persisted as a description of the human condition, with now a political connotation. It is interesting to note that despite advances in knowledge and technology, primitive tribes exist that have only slight contact with civilization and still live in the natural state.

Once, while visiting a zoo, I paused in front of the tiger exhibit. He was pacing along the edge of the enclosure, and suddenly stopped and looked over the fence at me. For a moment our eyes met, and I felt a chill run through me, primordial and instantly terrifying because in that instant I knew what primitive man must have felt looking into implacable indifferent death. It's something I've never forgotten. Those eyes have seen thousand millenniums of nature holding dominion over all, with man only very recently having any right to challenge her.

Nature does not have a conscience or mercy. Capricious and cruel, The Law of the Jungle honors the hierarchy of predator and prey, with survival of the fittest the prevailing concept. The Oxford English Dictionary says it succinctly, defining it as: "the code of survival in jungle life, now usually with reference to the superiority of brute force or self-interest in the struggle for survival." (my italics) 

Regressive political theory, also known as conservatism, embraces this as a core concept, postulating that the individual is given the right to act in his own self-interest regardless of the consequences for the rest of society. Regressives interpret the Constitution to support these rights, with a core principle contending that  all that you may create is the result of your effort alone. This idea of "individualism" has served to hold back civilization from the beginning and is derived from another Law of the Jungle concept: "every man for himself", or more brutally, "eat or be eaten". 

Regressive politicians pander to those who believe, through their own narcissistic self regard, their wealth and property was acquired by their own effort with little credit given to the larger society for providing an environment for them to prosper in. While there was some truth to this notion some centuries ago, when men did wrest their living from the wilderness, it has little relevance in modern times, where every individual is caught in the web of an almost inconceivably complex system. 

A key element of civilization is peaceful cooperation between competing groups and individuals. Violence, whether actual or implied, has been banished from the ideal of a civilized society, but Regressives, by embracing the Law of the Jungle as a defining principle, threaten this core value. 
Anyone with wealth wants to keep it, and those with great wealth, whether earned or not, will use that  wealth to insure that government will not impede their efforts to amass the greater fortune.

Regressives believe that those who don't "carry their weight"  or "contribute" do not deserve any of the benefits of society, with only the principle of law and order, against which they strain, keeping them from violence against those they feel threaten their wealth or perceived security. It's sometimes referred to as the "code of the West", referring to a time in America when policing on the frontier was scarce. This fundamentally barbaric attitude keeps them from seeing themselves as part of a greater society progressing to an egalitarian future. One might think that the religious aspects of Regressive-ism would move them to accept the reality that their individualism is a function of their participation in the larger community, but Regressive Christianity is insular, as are all religions, exacerbating the issue.

Criminal behavior is Regressive, and raises the issue of the relationship between mental illness and Regressive behavior and beliefs, a topic that will be addressed in another post.

Regressives take power, Progressives give power with the former using violence and coercion and the latter using persuasion and superior reasoning.

Both Progressive and Regressive themes occur in modern culture. For instance, sports, especially those that involve physical aggression, are Regressive. Art and Science are by their nature Progressive in that they are forward looking and encourage people to better understand the world they inhabit, but even here a destructive impetus can be found, particularly when science is used to wage war, the ultimate Regressive pursuit.

Mankind has struggled for centuries to escape the Jungle. Along the way the Earth has helped him by providing resources that, with his emerging intelligence, has enabled him to all but conquer the dangers stalking in the shadows. We have now come to a time where the greater danger lurks in the vestiges of his primitive mind. Progress is inevitable, humanity will advance, and perhaps in a hundred or a thousand years it will look back on the Twenty-first Century as a turning point in a five thousand year transition from the Jungle to Civilization. Until then the tiger will be watching.