Essence will Perdure

So genes are the selfish things inside our DNA that make us how we are anatomically. That must be clear by now.

Now memes. What are they exactly?

I’d like to define it as an idea, a cultural idea to be more precise. This memes are not transmitted by sexual reproduction, as genes, but by exchange of information, being written, talked, and/or seen. Everything that you have been taught in school, at home or in your religious institution, is a meme.

Dawkins says, “Our genes may be immortal but the collection of genes that is any one of us is bound to crumble away.” (pg.199) Meaning that even when our genes are constantly trying to move on from generation to generation, the collection of genes will only last one generation. On the other hand, memes, if able to contribute in a big way to the world’s culture, are bound to last much longer than the collection of genes.

This chapter made me go back to my philosophy class where we read Sigmund Freud’s, Civilizations and its Discontents. I found an interesting connection between Freud and Dawkins that helped me understand both texts better. 

Freud, talks about biology and archeology giving an example of all the changes that Rome has gone through. The monuments and constructions are no longer present on their original form,  (the “collection of genes”). Instead, there are reconstructions of reconstructions of the original monument. These reconstructions try to imitate the original constructions demonstrating that the essence, or idea of the original construction (the meme) is present, even when many centuries have gone by and the interpretations have changed and grown apart from the original.

Genes have to face competition in order to survive right? Memes do too. However, now a days memes don’t only have to compete with each other but with the commodities in the external world. The TV, radio, books, are all now competing with the memes. Therefore, in order for a meme to transcend into future generations it must, first, be strong enough to win the attention of the brain winning over its rival memes and commodities, and second be good enough to be passed on not only by one person, but by many people to other brains. 

Teamwork!

Teamwork!

Not really.

Individual self interest really.

It is clear that individual organisms need others, but is it just to individually survive and be able to pass on their genes or do they really care about the others?

As depressing as this might sound, organisms use other organisms form the same species to be able to survive longer. For example animals that live in herds, they do not really care about the companion of each other because they are best friends. No. What is really going on is that they are stuck with the others so they can live longer. They are actually just worried about their self-benefit but in order to benefit they must give in a little too. However, when it comes to danger and when these animals know that one of the herd will possibly die, they have to options: send the alarm call or apply Zahavi’s theory.
Zahavi’s theory states that for example in gazelles, the signal or alarm call is intended to the predators. When danger and death are inevitable they will do anything, even put in risk their herd members life, so they will survive. No matter how selfish it might be.
So, when you see animals working together they are not actually working together. They are just using each other for their individual gain.

Sad huh? Not really. You do the exact same thing.

Two things I can say about this, first, humans are not the only selfish species, second, it is in our genes to be selfish. The most selfish organism is the one who will survive and we all want to survive really, so we have too. We have no other option, and neither the animals that constantly have to face their predators. For example, when Dawkins sets the case of the birds and the parasite. Bird A helps Bird B take the tick off, but when Bird A goes to Bird B for help Bird B just slacks off. Who gains the most from this? Bird B obviously. Bird B won the benefits without paying the costs.

Even when species have to do symbiosis, so they can live longer.  They have to partner up with another species both contribute in some way to become the fittest and survive longer. Even when this may sound like working together and teamwork it really isn’t. They are doing what ever they can to survive even when they have to collaborate with another one it just on their best individual interest. 

'Survival of the Stable'

 Stable: “A stable thing is a collection of atoms that is permanent enough or common enough to deserve a name.” (Pg. 12 The Selfish Gene) Definition: Adj. Not likely to fall or give away, steady

    Replicator: “We will call it Replicator. It may not necessarily have been the biggest or the most complex molecule around, but it had the extraordinary property of being able to create copies of itself.” (Pg. 15 The Selfish Gene) Definition: noun. Something that makes an exact copy of itself; reproduces


Template: “The replicator would act as a template not for an identical copy, but for a kind of ‘negative’, which would in its turn re-make an exact copy of the original positive” (pg. 16 The Selfish Gene) Definition: noun.  Something serving as a model





Longevity: “Replicators of high longevity would therefore tend to become more numerous and, other things being equal, there would have been an ‘evolutionary trend’ towards greater longevity in the population of molecules.” (Pg. 17 The Selfish Gene) Definition: Noun. Length or duration of life



   Evolution: “Evolution is something that happens, willy-nilly, in spite of all the efforts of the replicators (and nowadays of the genes) to prevent it happening.” (Pg. 18 The Selfish Gene) Definition: noun. Change in the gene pool of a population from generation to generation by processes such as mutation, natural selection and genetic drift





Competition:  “We can now see the less that less-favored varieties must actually become less numerous because of competition, and ultimately many of their lines must have gone extinct” (pg.19 The Selfish Gene) Definition: noun. The act of competing, rivalry for supremacy, survival.

The End to the Best of All Possible Worlds.

On one of my blogs I wondered if Candide and Cunégonde would ever have a chance to be together and have their happy ending. Well the answer to that is they kind of do. Candide goes through a series of problems but at last gets to Constantinople where Lady Cunégonde is washing dishes as a job. She is quite ugly but Candide doesn’t mind and is willing to kill the Baron again, so the two of them can get married. Yes, Candide had already killed the Baron, well, it turns out he didn’t really die, he was saved by an apothecary, and as for Dr. Pangloss well, he is alive too. Even though he was hanged he was tied up incorrectly so he was still breathing, and the doctor who was going to dissect him, helped him. Back to my point, this shows how much Candide loved Cunégonde, so much, he killed three men for her, left Eldorado, where everything was much better, and was determined to re-kill The Baron.

When all the people that influenced Candide the most throughout his adventures are reunited, we can clearly see a contrast in the opinions, which I believe represents the different perspective of men with respect to society and life overall. Martin, pessimist however sincere, Pangloss incredibly optimist, the old woman, an experienced person filled with advice and Candide, the innocent, naïve yet very sincere and correct.

Candide throughout the entire novel is asking people and himself about Pangloss’s idea, that all is for the best. At certain points he is sure that it is not true. Other times however, he  believes that he is right. By the end of all his adventures he figures out that there is no such thing as “the best of all possible worlds” that it is our job to keep working on what we have to make it better and to get as close as that world as we can. I believe that is what Voltaire was trying to tell us all along. That we can’t just accept how the world is today because it is the best we can. No. We have to work and change in order to change it and to make it what we want it. I also believe that he is telling us that we should not spend so much time worrying or complaining about our miseries, instead we should concentrate on the good things or at least try to fix them.

“… We must go on and work in the garden.” (Pg. 144)

Society on the Hands of Wealth

While in the first chapters we saw Voltaire constantly criticizing optimism, I believe he is now making a point on pessimism. Martin, a man Candide found in Surinam keeps on finding the bad side of everything. This however, doesn’t bother me as much as optimism because he says he has never found the good part to anything due to the fact that his life is miserable. I understand him and even though it gives you a feeling of depression I prefer him than Dr. Pangloss’ optimism.

Moreover, what I really want to talk about in this blog is how as I read some chapters I couldn’t stop thinking about a book I read in 8^th grade called The Pearl by John Steinbeck. Long story short: there is a very poor family whose son is stung by a scorpion and they don’t have enough money so the doctor refuses to see them. However the father finds the biggest and prettiest pearl ever seen. When the doctor hears that the father found this pearl he immediately goes and tries to cure the baby. The baby is already healthy by a homemade remedy but the parents don’t know this so the doctor tricks them. At the end he gets greedy and finally he accidentally kills his own baby. The resemblance between this book and Candide is that when Candide got sick, the doctor instantly went to help him. “As he wore an enormous diamond ring on his finger, and a prodigiously heavy cash-box had been noticed amongst his luggage, he was soon attended by two doctors whom he had not send for…”(Pg. 97) just like in The Pearl the doctors show their interest and how greedy they are. They will only help others if they have enough money to be paid. For the record, I am not criticizing all doctors. No. Actually I admire them. However, we must not deny societies before and now a days work like that. Benefiting only the ones who can afford it. And its not only doctors it’s everyone.

After being in such a heavenly place, like Eldorado, they start facing reality again, first being stolen by a Dutch captain, and then finding a slave who his own mother sold into slavery. Then being tragically getting his hand “chopped off” and one leg. The first one while working on a factory, the second one as he was trying to escape. Here Candide once again looses all faith and questions Dr. Pangloss and optimism: “Oh Pangloss! A scandal like this never occurred to you! But it’s the truth, and I shall have t renounce that optimism of yours in the end.” (Pg. 86)

 The contrast in which Voltaire shows us both societies is huge. I mean, in one place people have all the riches in the world however they are so simple they don’t need them, on the other, everyone either has a lot or has nothing but both have the need for more.

Desirous Societies

“It is probably the country where all goes well; for there must obviously be some such place. And whatever Professor Pangloss might say, I often noticed that all went badly in Westphalia.” (Pg.77)

Eldorado… a mythical country said to be filled with gold and silver. However in Candide, it’s a lot more than that. It’s the example of a perfect country, where no courts, prisons, or churches exist because they are not needed. I believe Voltaire uses Eldorado to demonstrate a Utopia. Even Candide realizes this. I mean, after being watching all the gold and silver just laying on the streets with people being not so greedy compared to what Europe or Westphalia was… It would be hard not to see this, the simplicity of the people I mean.

Its funny how Voltaire compares Westphalia to Eldorado specially in this two phrases: “The Baron was one of the most influential noblemen in Westphalia, for his house had a door and several windows and his hall was actually draped with tapestry.” (Pg 19) vs. “They walked over to a modest little house, and went in it, The door was mere silver, and the rooms were paneled with nothing better than gold […] It is true the hall was incrusted only with rubies and emeralds, but everything was so well designed as to compensate for this extreme simplicity” (Pg. 78) I think I don’t even have to write down what I am thinking, because I am pretty sure you are thinking the same thing. They can’t ever be compared.

I think with Eldorado Voltaire demonstrates how greedy, ambitious, and complicated people from Europe, and actually all around the world are.  For example while in Europe there were continuous wars concerning religions, while in Eldorado they only believe in one God, they are completely sure about it, and they don’t ask for things, instead they thank him. This is something people don’t do that often nowadays, demonstrating the greediness of humankind. 

Imagine you got to this mythical country where gold is being played with by nine year-olds in the street. What would be your first thought? Get some of this gold and take it back to Europe, you will certainly become rich. That’s exactly what Candide and Cacambo think. They are honest enough not to steal it instead they ask for it, what do you expect the answer to be? No, right, or that was at least what I thought, actually it would be more like this;  “you greedy Europeans only care about money right? Well too bad leave immediately!” and probably with some bad words. However that was absolutely not even close to what they got. Instead the King himself said “The King laughed, ‘I don’t understand your European taste for our yellow mud, but take all you want, and much good may it do to you.’” (Pg. 83) Clearly not what you expected huh? Well that’s exactly Voltaire’s point: we should all be more less selfish and greedy.

We are not able to become the society we wish for because we are to concentrated on our ambitions, money, being better than the rest, which is not bad, however when we get to the point were we wish the others bad things, then there is a problem.  

A Soap Opera

Añadir leyenda

Candide and Lady Cunégonde really have a Mexican soap opera love story. Every time they are able to be together something happens that breaks them apart, just like in the soap operas. They have prohibited love. First, when Cunégonde is “experimenting” Pangloss “findings” with Candide, he is expelled form Westphalia. Later, while he is faced with the Bulgars and beaten up as a form of Auto-da-fé, she is disemboweled by the same Bulgars who kill her parents. However, after facing this variety of adversities, and thinking that the other is dead, they are somehow, reunited.

Of course everyone thinks that while in Portugal, they will be together, marry, have children and live happily ever after.
However, just like in any soap opera, they are separated again when they get to Buenos Ayres.

This time, if I may dare say, it is Candide’s fault. Basically because the Governor of Buenos Ayres shows his interests on Lady Cunégonde, and asks Candide if she is married to the captain. Candide is not able to lie so he tells the Governor that they will soon be married. Then the Governor asks Candide for some time alone with Cunégonde and Candide as naïve as one can get, leaves them alone. Of course, as any man would, the Governor asks Lady Cunégonde to marry him, and Cunégonde decides to ask the Old Lady for advice, and she as any other woman in the right mind would do tells her to marry the governor.

 I mean if you compare Candide, to this prestigious Governor… You would probably choose the Governor. However, before Lady Cunégonde has a chance to make a decision, some Spaniards are on their way to kill the responsible for the murder of the Great Inquisitor. Candide has to run, and leaves Cunégonde alone.

What’s even worse is that Candide in the middle of his sorrow, says, “My darling Cunégonde, to have to leave you just when the Governor promised to come to our wedding” (pg 61)… its like dude please! How can one be so simple-minded? Seriously.

Poor Candide, he has to face all this obstacles: the competition with a much more powerful man, the rumors that one of them died, the exile one of them has to face to be able to be with his dear Lady Cunégonde. Wait, I think I’ve heard that story before… Oh yeah, in all those corny soap operas I used to watch when I was younger. The ones that keep on getting longer and longer and never seem to end because the main couple keeps on having to face obstacles and you just want them to end up together, happily ever after. But it just won’t end and the real reason behind it is because the ratings are so high the producers can’t end them just now.

That’s exactly what’s happening to Candide.

The difference is that on those shows you know that the couple will somehow overcome anything and end up together. In Candide, I am really not sure. I mean anything can happen.

Will Cunégonde and Candide have a chance to be together forever and have their “happily ever after”?

By the way, just though this would be the perfect song for Candide and Lady Cunégonde.