Population Wars, Greg Graffin
Population Wars, Greg Graffin
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Population Wars
A New Perspective on Competition and Coexistence

Author: Greg Graffin

Narrator: Tom Zingarelli

Unabridged: 10 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/15/2015


Synopsis

From the very beginning, life on Earth has been defined by war. Today, those first wars continue to be fought around and literally inside us, influencing our individual behavior and that of civilization as a whole. War between populations—whether between different species or between rival groups of humans—is seen as an inevitable part of the evolutionary process. The popular concept of "the survival of the fittest" explains and often excuses these actions.

In Population Wars, Greg Graffin points to where the mainstream view of evolutionary theory has led us astray. That misunderstanding has allowed us to justify wars on every level, whether against bacterial colonies or human societies, even when other, less violent solutions may be available. Through tales of mass extinctions, developing immune systems, human warfare, the American industrial heartland, and our degrading modern environment, Graffin demonstrates how an over-simplified idea of war, with its victorious winners and vanquished losers, prevents us from responding to the real problems we face. Along the way, Graffin reveals a paradox: when we challenge conventional definitions of war, we are left with a new problem, how to define ourselves.

About Greg Graffin

Greg Graffin is the lead singer and a songwriter in Bad Religion. Greg obtained his PhD in zoology at Cornell University and a master's in geology from UCLA, and has served as a lecturer in life sciences and paleontology at UCLA. He is the author of Evolution and Religion and coauthor, with Steve Olson, of Anarchy Evolution. Greg received the Bryan Patterson Prize from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, the Rushdie Prize from the Harvard University Humanist Chaplaincy, the American Humanist Association Arts Award, and the Sapio Prize from the International League of Non-Religious and Atheists. He travels regularly between the cities he considers home, Ithaca, New York, and Los Angeles, California.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tim on January 25, 2016

"Perhaps the real 'hell' of war is that you can never really win one." This evocative quote, from Greg Graffin's new book Population Wars: A New Perspective On Competition and Coexistence, elucidates the dilemma that faces humanity and the lesson we have failed to learn. Graffin demonstrates how war'......more

Goodreads review by T on January 26, 2016

What I really want to read is a book where Greg Graffin takes the subject matter from one song from each Bad Religion album and each one a chapter. I did like this book (3.5) although it did meander at times. My favorite line was, "It may sound peculiar coming from an old punk rocker, but I strongly......more

Goodreads review by Julie on October 12, 2020

2.5 I didn't enjoy reading the book, but I learned quite a bit of random information. Graffin, my punk rock hero, brings together a love of history and science to argue that we should all forget about competition (except for within sports) and realize that we must become stewards of our environment......more

Goodreads review by Aaron on November 23, 2022

Loved reading a science-based book from a GOAT punk rocker. However, I found the structure of the ideas presented to be more meandering than I would have liked. Sad to say that I’m not sure I’d recommend this one.......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on December 28, 2016

The main theme of this tome is that populations--as defined scientifically not generally--have always come into contact with each other throughout earth's history and this contact has always bred conflict, then compromise and assimilation. The secondary theme is that evolution/natural selection does......more