    30

    Here's where nature's tendency to gamble away the lives of men

    comes in.  And here's where the urge of one superorganism to pit itself

    against its neighbors begins to show that--despite its total moral

    unacceptability--the violent competition between societies is a

    contributor to the evolutionary process.  Chimps and gorillas make

    war, and their early-human relatives, neurally endowed with many of

    the same instinctive imperatives, almost certainly followed in their

    path.  So the rock and stick tossers were probably eager to try their new

    skills out on the skulls of their neighbors.  And boys being what they

    are, the neighbors themselves were likely to be itching for a good fight.

    But against a tribe with the knack of tossing, a gang that was still trying

    to use its fists and teeth didn't stand a chance.  The ancestors of the

    great baseball players of the future could only come out on top.

    When a gang of mountain apes wins a battle against a rival tribe,

    it kidnaps the nubile females of the defeated troop.  The victorious

    primates take these captive maidens back home and add them to the

    harem.48  Primitive humans do the same.  So it's easy to imagine what

    happens when the guys with the great throwing arms out-toss a group

    that hasn't learned to hurl.  The winners massacre an appalling number

    of rival men with their well-aimed lobs.  Then, in the manner of

    mountain apes, the winning tribe of makes off with the losers' mates.

    They throw a feast, eat a lot of antelope, hump their new brides like

    rabbits, and spread great pitchers across the face of the planet.   The

    murderous males further mother nature's plans, introducing new

    improvements in the line of living things.  Masculine expendability

    proves a part of the cosmic scheme for research and development.  So

    does the itch of one superorganism to fling itself into battle against

    another.   What a truly unpleasant idea.

    And you wondered why little boys love to play ball!

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