the dark side

[Yaur]

All living things, be they human, animal, or vegetative, are fundamentally selfish. This is how evolution works.

In social animals there is an inherent conflict between the first order "selfish" where we do for our selves, second order "selfish" where we do for our family, third order "selfish" where we do for our tribe, and fourth order "selfish" where we do for our species. A "dark side" is only an ideological construct to pull us closer to that fourth order ideal and only has power because we have become a species that embraces specialization and requires some level of support from all four orders.

Ask a flower or a coyote what the concept of a "dark side" means and you will get very different perspective.

[cacian]

All living things, be they human, animal, or vegetative, are fundamentally selfish. This is how evolution works.

In social animals there is an inherent conflict between the first order "selfish" where we do for our selves, second order "selfish" where we do for our family, third order "selfish" where we do for our tribe, and fourth order "selfish" where we do for our species. A "dark side" is only an ideological construct to pull us closer to that fourth order ideal and only has power because we have become a species that embraces specialization and requires some level of support from all four orders.

Ask a flower or a coyote what the concept of a "dark side" means and you will get very different perspective.

I have to disagree the only selfish are the humans.
animals and plants are very different to us. there is no comparison. animals and plants rely on light as well as non light to carry on their cycle.
we must follow suit we may learn something.

[Yaur]

I'm curious on what basis you would call selfishness a human specific trait. I'll give some specific examples that in humans would be seen as somewhere between “selfish” and outright “evil” in humans:

In coyote packs, pups are not allowed to eat until the adults have had their fill. If there isn't enough food... well you can guess what happens.

Infanticide is well documented in Lions, Gerbils, Prairie dogs, and a bunch of other species.

Brood parasitism in the Cuckoo among others.

Somewhere on the internet (don't think I have enough posts to post links yet) there is a video of a an octopus killing a shark, not out of hunger or because it was under attack but because the shark represented an existential threat.

The whole sea otter/seal thing. I believe this is supposed to be a family friendly site so I won't write more than that, but you can Google it if you really want to know.

[astrum]

is there a dark side to humans or is it a myth propagated by literature for literature?
does nature have a dark side for example? hence the expression ''the dark side of the moon''. what it could mean may be subject to speculations.

Human nature undoubtedly has a dark side.
Robert Greene does a good job of explaining that side in his books--especially "The 48 Laws of Power."