ThirstyFish

In the original 1942 Bambi animated film, Bambi's mom is killed by hunters. The movie received negative reviews due to its depiction of evil humans. Hunters spoke out against the movie, calling it an insult to American sportsmen...

An earlier post covered the idea of anthropomorphism; the ascription of human form or attributes to beings or things that are not not human. Another post examined the Bambi Effect; the hypocrisy of opposing the killing of things that are perceived to be cute while not objecting to harm done to things that are perceived to be less desirable. Moral choices are never absolute. Hypocrisy is inevitable. Right and wrong are relative.

During the 19th Century, British polymath Herbert Spencer coined the term survival of the fittest, extending Charles Darwin's idea of Natural Selection to his economic theories. The popular and misapplied use of the term survival of the fittest, is considered to be a naturalistic fallacy; the fallacy of drawing ethical conclusions from natural facts (such as Darwin's natural selection). In fact, the misinterpreted term has been used to justify laissez-faire economics, war and racism. The fallacy has its basis in our interpretation of "fitness". If the fittest always survived, then there would be no extinct apex predators. But there has been...

"Survival of the fit enough" may be a better way to extend and generalize the Theory of Natural Selection beyond biology. But, "fit enough" is ambiguous and we only like thinking in absolutes. We are the apex predators of our age, but we may not be sufficiently fit to survive what mother nature might send our way. We may not even be as fit as Mom and Bambi.