My younger brother is extremely competitive: he takes joy in the knowledge that he will be taller than me. His objective is to surpass me, as all brothers should in the role model/pupil situation of fraternity. However, when it comes to food, as all young animals, he is vicious. Stealing from his portion of fries is punishable by death at knife-point; however, if an ‘elder’-say a father or grandfather- takes from his fries without due clearance, he knows he must bite his tongue and accept the truth: it’s not that bad. As Dawkins says, “Selfish greed seems to characterize much of child behavior” (128).
As his elder brother, my responsibility is to sacrifice some of my benefits to his advantage: “If I am competing with my brother for a morsel of food, and if he is much younger than me so that he could benefit from the food more than I could, it might pay my genes to let him have it” (128). If I am not convinced, I still, in my case, have no choice: My brother’s super-fast reflexes can sense any danger to his food…its an ability he has. Although he has much to learn about generosity, I now know that as he gets older, he will come realize , or rather, his genes will come to realize, that such fight for food no longer deserves the energy. His biological hunger for food (even when he is not hungry), is not his fault, and all that I must do is wait until he thinks that he can fend for himself in the wilderness.
Another point that I must greatly consider is that although he requires more food to satiate his genes’ security, I must not exaggerate in my altruism, for if I do, he will never seem to learn and will remain in a state of competition. He must learn to rest when it is his time…or at least be more flexible on sharing food.
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