Elizabeth Finch: A novel

by Julian Barnes

The survival of the fittest, by which, of course, Darwin didn’t mean the strongest or even the cleverest, merely those best equipped to adapt to changing circumstances. But it is not like this in actual human history. Those who survive, or excel, or overmaster are merely those who are better organised and wave bigger guns; those who are better at killing. Peaceable nations are rarely victorious—in ideas, to be sure, but ideas rarely prevail unless backed by the muzzle of a gun. It is lamentable, we would all agree, but it would be indolent not to recognise it. Because otherwise we merely have to sit on our hands—sit on our brains as well, and admit, To the victor the spoils, which also means, To the victor the truth. “Do we really think that, say, the Etruscans were inferior to the Romans? Would they not have been a better influence on the world? Can we not see that the Albigensian heresy was more enlightened and more just than the medieval Church of Rome which crushed it so ruthlessly? Do we imagine that all those white settlers who exterminated all those indigenous tribes across the world were morally superior to their victims? Consider also that what we used to call the Dark Ages are now recognised as being full of Light. Consider the cases of the two Julians—two conspicuous examples of what might have been. Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor of Rome, who attempted to turn back the disastrous flood tide of Christianity. And the lesser-known Julian of Eclanum, w...