The Illusion of Greatness

There is a persistent principle in evolution. The species that appears the most dominant and powerful is often the first to go extinct when a crisis arrives. Meanwhile, the most unremarkable and undemanding species not only survive but eventually become the ancestors of entire branches of future fauna. A species that is perfectly adapted to present conditions is usually completely dependent on them. By contrast, for a species accustomed to playing a secondary role, switching from one food source to another, and surviving on the edge of starvation, a crisis changes doesn’t change that much.

Just before the Permian extinction, the majestic gorgonopsians were the kings of their age. They occupied the top of the food chain, lived across much of the world, and utterly dominated the ecological niche of large terrestrial predators. But when the crisis came, they all disappeared. Our ancestors, by comparison, were few in number and inconspicuous — small semi-aquatic creatures that fed on whatever they could find: beetles, eggs, carrion. When the catastrophe began, they retreated underground, surviving on roots and clean groundwater. In the end, it was they who became the ancestors of all mammals.

This is also how I explain to myself the initial spread of Islam. Mighty Persia, exhausted by centuries of bloody wars with Rome and torn apart by civil conflict, yielded to those it had long dismissed — the inhabitants of poor deserts, accustomed to surviving on minimal resources and quietly waiting for their moment. Once they achieved unity, these “outsiders” swiftly inherited the vacant throne of the Middle East.

We need to stop orienting ourselves solely around visible, external attributes of strength. The history of Earth demonstrates that greatness is the most fragile of illusions. Civilization is merely a thin formation upon the surface of the human species, one that will be overturned by the first serious jolt. Our states will not protect us — these dying leviathans can only drag us into the grave with them. We can rely only on ourselves. Only independence, readiness for hardship, unpretentiousness, and perseverance will save our population from extinction.