It's dog eat dog here.

[MoonRiver]

Some of the dogs are pampered and protected, with golden collars, plush bedding, expensive wardrobes and all the yummy, nutritious food they can eat. Those dogs don't want to fight but the big dogs surrounding them will save the pack at any cost. The protector dogs are big, well fed and mean. Then there are the strays. Now those poor chumps would love to get some of the goodies inside the gilded dog mansions, primarily because they are starving on the streets. Knowing it's basically impossible to scale the walls and take on the big dogs they usually just skulk outside waiting to grab scraps from the garbage. But once in a while desperation drives them to plan an attack. When this happens, as in all wars, there are casualties. But in this world no veterinarian will tend to strays' wounds (A doc has to make a living, after all.). A fight for the strays literally means life and death. Big dogs, on the other hand, have instant access to all the finest medical care they need. They will usually live to fight, eat and mate with their well coiffed bitches another day.

Survival of the fittest doesn't even begin to apply here. No way is this the level playing field found in nature. And the scary thing is it's the world I began seeing unfold in 2000, and so far have found little evidence that it is not still alive and well.

[Fumesucker]

1. I recall a quote by a former Soviet citizen..

In capitalism it is dog-eat-dog, in communism it is the reverse..

[mdmc]

6. clever

..

[chrisa]

8. Pretty funny quote.

In Communism, I would say it's dog-eat-dog, but the bigger dogs pretend that they aren't eating the little dogs, and the little dogs go along with it.

In Capitalism, when the big dog eats the little dogs, and has it's mouth open to bite, the other little dogs yell "Hop right in!"

[inna]

9. OMG, that's sheer genius.

:spray:

Did you come up with it yourself, or did you read this quote somewhere?

[deaniac21]

2. Darwin said the species that survive are the species that are

the most adaptive to change.

[MoonRiver]

4. Darwin didn't take into account corporations

protecting the rich and fat.

[AngryAmish]

5. Like the horseshoe crab

[alittlelark]

11. All humans are 1 species - as are dogs all one species....

Are you talking about 'Social Darwinism'(which is RW whacko rationalization)?

[deaniac21]

12. An interpretation of the phrase "survival of the fittest" to mean

"only the fittest organisms will prevail" (a view sometimes derided as "Social Darwinism") is not consistent with the actual theory of evolution. Any individual organism which succeeds in reproducing itself is "fit" and will contribute to survival of its species, not just the "physically fittest" ones, though some of the population will be better adapted to the circumstances than others. A more accurate characterization of evolution would be "survival of the fit enough".

[FarCenter]

13. But mathematically, it all depends on whether the group's expected number of grandkids is >= 4

Forget "adaptable", "fittest", and all that nonsense.

Survival is all about reproductive success, which determines whether a subpopulation increases or decreases over time.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. at first, I thought you meant here at DU...

I agree totally with the analogy with the US (and actually think it has gotten a bit like that at DU as well...only it is the "established" posters vs those who are trying to be heard, but don't get it quite right or cross someone or some group)...

[MoonRiver]

7. Lol, I never made that connection!

[rrneck]

doop

[rrneck]

10. It's a dog eat dog world

because it's being run by rats.

I flog this quote a lot;

"You can always hire one half of the poor to kill the other half."

Jay Gould, nineteenth century robber baron.