This holds true in any community where these traits are present
in some degree in the population. Modern competition is in large
part a process of self-assertion on the basis of these traits of
predatory human nature. In the sophisticated form in which they
enter into the modern, peaceable emulation, the possession of
these traits in some measure is almost a necessary of life to the
civilized man. But while they are indispensable to the
competitive individual, they are not directly serviceable to the
community. So far as regards the serviceability of the individual
for the purposes of the collective life, emulative efficiency is
of use only indirectly if at all. Ferocity and cunning are of no
use to the community except in its hostile dealings with other
communities; and they are useful to the individual only because
there is so large a proportion of the same traits actively
present in the human environment to which he is exposed. Any
individual who enters the competitive struggle without the due
endowment of these traits is at a disadvantage, somewhat as a
hornless steer would find himself at a disadvantage in a drove of
horned cattle.
The possession and the cultivation of the predatory traits of
character may, of course, be desirable on other than economic
grounds.
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