I've been thinking that we need to modify our sense of identity. We help our kin because we see the connection we share with them. In the last few generations we have begun to see the connections that unite us all. Just as I am my parents, I am all of my ancestors. If this is true for all life on Earth, then we are one. We can all identify as the last universal ancestor. I think that this broader mindset has some significant benefits.

The bit about genes vs. animals was regarding the paradigm shift caused by the notion of the selfish gene. Dawkins didn't come up with the idea, but his book made it much more apparent to the biological community. That was in the 70s. Before then, it was largely held that organisms were the "primary unit" of evolution, and that genes were what organisms "used" to carry themselves on into the next generation. While this is true from a certain perspective, it is an artificial perspective, and not very useful for making predictions. What the selfish gene theory did was flip that paradigm on its head. (It also ruffled a lot of feathers in the religious and philosophical community!) Essentially, it says that genes are the primary unit of evolution, and organisms are elaborate "gene survival machines" whose sole purpose is to give the genes a competitive advantage.

I'm sure you can see that this notion would cause waves among those who believe that humanity is a "special creature." The thing is, explaining things from the point of view of a gene makes sense of a lot of behavior that was completely baffling to evolutionists who were trying to explain adaptations in terms of the interests of organisms. So, instead of thinking of ourselves as animals passing on our genes, the correct scientific perspective is one of genes building new generations of survival machines.

I didn't get this: "…the previous mindset in which animals used genes to reproduce."