Filling the world with fools

Until quite recently I’d always assumed that the phrase “survival of the fittest” was Darwin’s own and came from his On the Origin of Species.

But not at all. In fact it was first coined in a letter in 1866 by the economist and philosopher, Herbert Spencer. He had recently read Darwin’s book and noticed the powerful connections between the biologist’s theory of natural selection and his own ideas about how economies work.

Does everyone know this apart from me?

The thinking of both men has stood the test of time. Fitness for purpose in a changing environment is the best, maybe the only, way to survive.

The only major difference is that, in the biological world, most change comes naturally. Whereas in the economic world, the drive to innovate is primarily the result of our own ideas and wills.

Of course, a major exception occurs when governments intervene to distort the market, as they did following the banking crisis. It remains to be seen whether or not the consequence will have been to improve or reduce the fitness for purpose of all those now publicly-owned organisations.

As Spencer put it: “The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.”