Genesis: The Deep Origin Of Societies, by Edward O. Wilson

Beware of the writer who says he (or she) has no dogma. Everyone has dogma, as it is a matter of worldview and not of formally religious belief. Since everyone has a worldview, or else one would not perceive anything or judge anything or have an opinion about anything, without which it would be entirely pointless and useless to write or communicate anything, not least in the form of a (mercifully short) book, it is a sign of intellectual blindness and hypocrisy to dogmatically state that one has no dogma simply because one is an infidel like the author. The fundamental self-blindness that the author possesses, which gives him (in his own dim eyes) the carte blanche to privilege his own ridiculous worldview while heaping abuse on any other way of viewing creation, makes what could have been a genuinely interesting book into an exercise in the author’s ignorance and spleen. His ignorance is displayed when he portrays what he views to be true–obvious truth no less–and his spleen is displayed when he writes about what he views as worthless religious myth. Sadly, I have never read a religious myth as ridiculous or risible as that which the author portrays as absolute and indisputable truth. Even a flat earth standing on an infinite regress of turtles strains credulity slightly less than the author’s own rigorously naturalistic worldview, as wise as he seems in his own eyes.

This book is a short one, at between 100 and 150 pages of content, which begins with some weighty religious questions that the author (given his defective worldview) is ill-equipped to address. This prologue is followed by the author’s search for genesis in evolutionist fables (1). This leads to the author positing various transitions of evolution, none of which have reasonable evolutionary solutions (2), despite the pleading of the author to the contrary (3). The author then gives his ideas about social evolution through the ages (4), before discussing the final steps to eusociality (5). This is really the most interesting part of the book, as the author examines the difficulties that species have in becoming eusocial, given the rarity of such species in the fossil record or on earth today. After this the author speaks about group selection (6) and then proceeds to give a human story (7) that is far more ridiculous than anything written in the ancient world. After this comes references and suggestions for further reading, acknowledgements, and an index.

Given that the author fails so miserably at providing a plausible explanation for the development of society, how could this book have been redeemed? It would have first been wise for the author to start with some humility, admitting his own dogma (such as the dogma that nothing in science makes sense without evolution, a statement without factual value and only useful as a statement of Darwinian orthodoxy), and making it plain that this is a book engaged in theological and metaphysical speculation rather than objective scientific analysis (if such a thing is even possible). It would have then been helpful to ponder on the difference between society and eusociality, as the author conflates the two, making any species that exists within a structured and ordered society a eusocial being on the level of bees, wasps, ants, termites, and mole rats. To be sure, the author’s discussion of eusociality is interesting, but highly speculative, and the author makes some giant leaps that are not borne out by logic or evidence in claiming that mankind is, strictly speaking, eusocial, which appears to be at the heart of his argument about social structure and the origins of inequality within human societies. Perhaps if the author had approached his topic as I would recommend, he would not have won so many glittering but empty prizes, but he would have been a better writer and a better man for it.