https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2010/05/30/memory-and-surival/feed/PJ Media is a leading news site covering culture, politics, faith, homeland security, and more. Our reporters and columnists provide original, in-depth analysis from a variety of perspectives.en-usWed, 10 Jun 2026 01:11:58 -0400<![CDATA[There&#8217;s a video on YouTube showing a father shielding his child from an out of control car careening from the street into a shop. The father turns and interposes his body between and the baby he is carrying just as the vehicle smashes the through the window. The entire event happens so quickly the action seems entirely instinctive; and it is behavior familiar to us. Tolkien, in the Two Towers, describes Sam&#8217;s charge on Shelob in defense of the fallen Frodo as driven by nature. &#8220;No onslaught more fierce was ever seen in the savage world of beasts, where some desperate small creature armed with little teeth, alone, will spring upon a tower of horn and hide that stands above its fallen mate.&#8221;  If so, nature must have a reason for it.  Perhaps a species consisting of individuals capable of placing something above their own personal survival enjoys an advantage over that which does not. Darwin dealt with the problem of &#8216;altruism&#8217; in his Descent of Man.]]>Sun, 30 May 2010 05:34:41 -0400<![CDATA[Richard Fernandez]]>https://pjmedia.com/richard-fernandez/2010/05/30/memory-and-surival-n189806