Good article worth sharing! Of course, everyone’s heard of Charles Darwin. But Alfred Russel Wallace? I never have. Have y’all?
From the article:
“But after his death, Wallace quickly disappeared into relative obscurity until he was brought back into the public consciousness at the start of this millennium. This was due to a number of reasons. Firstly, Darwin came from a prominent family and had the support of influential figures in the scientific community, whereas Wallace was from a more humble background.”
He was anti-vaxx, anti-tyranny, anti-eugenics — so that might have something to do with it. Plus, he wasn’t wealthy or well-connected. So it’s no mystery why he doesn’t make the school books.
And then, there’s this, so there’s yer sign! 😆
“He also wrote about the dangers and wastefulness of militarism and wanted people to realise “that all modern wars are dynastic; that they are caused by the ambition, the interests, the jealousies, and the insatiable greed of power of their rulers, or of the great mercantile and financial classes which have power and influence over their rulers; and that the results of war are never good for the people, who yet bear all its burthens (burdens)”.”
Quick read, well worth it!
Alfred Russel Wallace, Wikipedia
I went to a Catholic High School so we studied the Scopes Monkey Trial in my senior year. But I smokes a lot of pot back then and I wasn’t always present during class. This was a good refresher! Thanks for sharing.
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I vaguely remember that lesson too—and how interesting Wiki admits it was a show trial. I liked this summary and am not surprised how much it still applies:
“William Jennings Bryan’s summation of the Scopes trial (distributed to reporters but not read in court):
Science is a magnificent force, but it is not a teacher of morals. It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine. It can also build gigantic intellectual ships, but it constructs no moral rudders for the control of storm-tossed human vessel. It not only fails to supply the spiritual element needed but some of its unproven hypotheses rob the ship of its compass and thus endanger its cargo. In war, science has proven itself an evil genius; it has made war more terrible than it ever was before. Man used to be content to slaughter his fellowmen on a single plane, the earth’s surface. Science has taught him to go down into the water and shoot up from below and to go up into the clouds and shoot down from above, thus making the battlefield three times as bloody as it was before; but science does not teach brotherly love. Science has made war so hellish that civilization was about to commit suicide; and now we are told that newly discovered instruments of destruction will make the cruelties of the late war seem trivial in comparison with the cruelties of wars that may come in the future. If civilization is to be saved from the wreckage threatened by intelligence not consecrated by love, it must be saved by the moral code of the meek and lowly Nazarene. His teachings, and His teachings alone, can solve the problems that vex the heart and perplex the world.[44]“
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I was aware of Wallace. Darwin plagiarized his early work.
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