Simply going with the flow often leads to obesity, bankruptcy, and unfulfilling relationships. Genes build organisms to foster their goals and care nothing for happiness, justice, and peace. In the Australian social spider, for example, the power of genetic interests is clear. After giving birth to about a hundred hungry spiderlings, Mom's body literally liquefies into a pile of mushy flesh. The babies then completely consume the gooey mess and begin life with some real home cooking in their bellies.
Genes are selfish, powerful, and pervasive.
Returning, as I often do, to my Marine memories, I recall a day in tank school at Fort Knox when a sergeant threw my entire bed out the third-floor window because a fold was the wrong size. My most poignant memory, however, comes from collecting donations to buy Q-Tips to clean our rifles for a boot camp inspection. I said that we didn't need so much. Perhaps paradoxically, Marine culture is socialistic all other things being equal, a Marine gets paid more if he or she is married and still more for each child. Socialism may not have worked in Russia, but socialism in combat units has proved to be effective.