Trees:
There is an interesting phenomenon in trees. Their branches angle changes relative to the height on the bole. The higher branches, nearer to the top, are angles upward, and the farther you move down the angle also trends downward. Once you reach the base, the branches are angles downward. I have guessed that this has a two fold benefit to the tree itself. The higher branches are angled for two reasons. The first is to leave room for sunlight to reach the lower branches, but the second is so that any rain water caught by the upper boughs, will be funneled along the branches, and down the trunk to the roots. The lower branches are angled downward, so that excess rain water is diffused, both to protect the tree itself, but also to aid its offspring. Those seeds truly do not fall far from the tree, and they would have a harder time getting water if all of the branches were at an angle to funnel watter to the main trees roots. This means that a forest is both competing and cooperative simultaneously. They compete for resources, and any tree that cannot, will not live to reproduce. But any tree that DOES live to reproduce, has to be fit enough to care for itself AND its offspring.
Pigeons:
Living in the city, there are a lot of them flying around. Subways, buildings, parks, anywhere you go has them. Best way to find them, throw some bread on the floor, they will come from everywhere. You wont even see where they came from, but they will come. This is probably due to a collective survival ability. The closest ones come to get food, but they are being observed by a group farther off, who come to investigate. And so on, until it becomes an issue of risk over reward. The distance traveled doesn't add to the reward gained or energy expended to get that last scrap of food, (unless you have a bread truck). This may mean that they have slightly more complex reasoning and navigation abilities than we generally attribute to them.
A second problem we have is deciding where to stand outside. All city dwellers are aware that scaffolding, buildings, and outdoor train stations are rife with hazards. But one thing I've noticed, is the trees. I have never witnessed them perch on the trees, they prefer stationary perches. Have pigeons evolved to the point where they are incapable of adjusting their balance on a moving perch? This would require the physical shape and use of their inner ear system to change, and it seems unlikely as they can still fly. Though I'm not sure about the documentation of pigeon flight distances, they are non-migratory, so it is possible that their ear was forced to change because of some factor relative to living in a city. This change must have allowed the birds to live and procreate in the city, but robbed them of longer distance flight, and some balance.
Psychology:
The psychoanalytic theory is something which I have written about before. Previously I stated it seemed flawed to me, as the base assumption was that subconscious motives are suppressed by society, and I could not figure out how a humans could evolve with that trait to be fitted into a society. The answer is simple actually. Lying is the cause. People evolved the ability of lying, of misrepresenting reality, in order to hide their motives, or gain the upper hand against a competitor. The reason that 'societies' of varying cultural background don't show evidence of different levels of subconscious repression is that the advent of lying predates society. So society came built in with all of people foibles and abilities, lying being one of them. This causes people in the society, who are statistical outliers but would otherwise (outside of organized society) be within the norm, to become better liar's, hiding more and more of their views, desires, ability's and possessions. This in turn became part of the social contract, which has no written record though is socialized into everyone. Keep the things which are unacceptable to society to yourself, and you can stay a member. This in turn causes internal conflict, which over generations of socialization, and breeding better liar's, causes repression and subconscious motives to emerge. So really, its our own fault we have politicians.
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