It’s the greatest race: two animals in their natural state battling each other for a position of chiefdom within their species. Deciding who will lead, who will follow; who will survive, and who will be forgotten: the epitome of Darwin’s survival of the fittest.

Unlike Darwin’s finches, the only mutations these ferocious competitors will develop are those assigned to them by their enemies, a “descent with modification” based on the opinion of the masses. Make no mistake; these vicious predators will do anything it takes to defeat their opponents.

As humans in a democratic society, we are no less immune to the effects of this primal instinct than gladiators of ancient Rome, yet we have changed the game. Instead of a physical fight for dominance, we have an election. Instead of lethal weapons, reputation killing advertisements; instead of coliseums full of attentive spectators, a hyperactive international press corps. Each candidate for elected office in America represents an evolution of the same character that gladiators and monkeys alike have played for thousands of years before them.

Elections determine the path and direction of our country and every individual feels their significance. Unlike the simplistic pitting of slave against slave in a coliseum, all constituents’ livelihoods are at risk in this tug of war for the public’s approval. As it turns out, the most dangerous game is also the most entertaining.

According to British philosopher Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, every action a person takes is motivated by his own self-interest. It is no surprise, then, that in a 2008 Nielsen estimate, 63.2 million people watched the Oct. 8 presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, compared to this year’s World Series’ 15 million viewers. People care about what they have an invested stake in.

Surprisingly, however, the majority of people do not care enough to participate in the election process. Sadly, only 42 percent of the eligible voting electorate took part in this year’s midterms, according to the Associated Press. By those standards, it appears elections entertain more people than they motivate to act.

Another British philosopher, Adam Smith, proposed in his economic-didactic, The Wealth of Nations, that the pursuit of self-interest was the basis for progressive societal growth. Despite a resounding ambiance of economic suffering in this past election cycle, only 42 percent of the eligible population found time to vote? The one action we can take to change the status quo for our benefit is the one action that no more than 42 percent of the population partook in. From the standpoint of participation, democracy failed this November.

However, democracy fails every midterm election. Voter participation usually drops significantly for midterm elections, in which the presidency is not up for grabs. People do not see the urgency to vote when the big man is not running for office. Yet, compared to an estimated 37 percent voter participation in the 2006 midterms, the 42 percent from this midterm is not bad at all. In fact, it is a significant improvement.

To whom can we attribute this increase in voters? Is it a backlash at the Obama administration’s failure to significantly decrease the unemployment rate, stagnant at 9.6 percent? Or just disapproval aimed at the Democratic Congress? Maybe it’s just an amplification of the support for the Republican Party and or the Tea Party, which won a 60-plus seat victory in the House of Representatives. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that people get out and act.

The pen is mightier than the sword, but a pen used to mark an absentee ballot and the finger used to touch a touchscreen ballot are mightier than any pen-sword combination a proverb could illustrate.

Sure, it’s fun to watch elections and listen to the political rhetoric about witches from Delaware and Chinese plots to make America a nation of slave laborers, but even a primate knows that in order to improve his quality of life, he has to climb up the banana tree and reach for the banana, not just watch passively as other chimps do it unsatisfactorily. We need more chimps willing to reach for bananas.

Whether electing the head of tribe in 2012, or the equally important legislative body that supports our interests in 2014, we need to start acting on that basic instinct that draws us to elections instead of simply watching the entertaining chaos that ensues. Only then will we be able to say we have truly evolved.