Elon Musk should know that human social structures are more fluid than even the most complex of animal hierarchies. A simplistic view of domination does not map neatly on to our interactions
By the end of the 20th century, biologist David Mech realised that not only did humanity not feature alpha males, neither did the wolf species. Photograph: Alamy/PAhas been specifically designed to render uncool many of the scientific dreams of my childhood. Electric cars, space flight, terraforming Mars – even the letter X, the most reliable of ‘90s metonyms for edgy, futuristic cool, isn’t safe. Perhaps the most egregious example, however, is the wolf.
The retweet generated significant backlash, not least because Musk had uncritically shared the misogynistic and antidemocratic image. The fact that it contained language associated with, the influencer who is currently under house arrest in Romania on human trafficking charges, was not lost on many commentators.
But what does this have to do with wolves and my childhood? In the 1990s, wolves were a significant cultural force. Films such as Dances With Wolves and White Fang cast them as romantic symbols of self-discovery. It says a lot about the era that wolves were able to represent the spiritual ideals of New Age mysticism, rugged individualism, and the anti-hero archetype, not least why airbrushed graphic T-shirts with wolf motifs were so pervasive.
Mech dubbed the dominant pack leaders in the wolf hierarchies that he studied the “alpha”. Other ethologists studied the more complicated hierarchies of primates such as chimpanzees, and frequently observed dominant males using aggression and the control of resources such as food to secure a leadership role. Before long, the idea of the alpha male as a biological norm was widespread and was even applied to humans.
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