Mind Wars (PDF)

Develops the suggestion that ideas can be transmitted across societies and generations and are subject to natural selection in the same way as are physical characteristics, a concept first proposed by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene.Why do human beings wage war and persecute each other? Why do religious and political factions battle to control nations? Why do seemingly intelligent people cling to beliefs that fly in the face of scientific evidence?In Mind Wars, Ian McFadyen puts forward the startling argument that human beings, the so-called intelligent species, are, in fact, not totally in control of their own thought processes. And human behaviour is not a product of instinct nor of any social, political or economic system. Rather, humans are little more than intellectual puppets - controlled by self-perpetuating belief systems that spread through society like viruses, destroying their rivals and exploiting the human animal for their own survival.This new perspective on human behaviour and history is not merely science fiction, but one which arises from the ideas of neo-Darwinism. McFadyen suggests that, just like biological organisms, our thoughts and behaviour are the result of an evolutionary battle in which it is not the most noble or the most truthful that win out, but the best replicators.Mind Wars will challenge the way you think about your own beliefs and force you to reassess your view of reality. Most importantly, it will make you ask yourself, 'How much of what I know do I really know?'