[MD] Quality strikes again

[Platt Holden]

Hi All:

An article about E.O Wilson, the guru of ants and advocate of sociobiology, 
is in today's NY Times at:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/15/science/15wils.html

One paragraph caught my MOQ eye: 

"Dr Wilson´s treatise, on the shaping of social behavior, seems likely to 
tread firmly into this vexed arena.  Morality and religion, he suspects, 
are traits based on group selection. `Groups with men of quality - brave, 
strong, innovative, smart and altruistic  -- would tend to prevail, as 
Darwin said, over groups that do not have those qualities so well 
developed, ` Dr. Wilson said."

I doubt, of course, if it ever occurred to Wilson that it's Quality, not 
groups, that basically drives evolution although it´s right there in his 
quote, staring him in the face. 

Amazing how even celebrated intellectuals can be blinded by their self-
imposed "immune systems."

Regards,
Platt