It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value.
It is not the strongest of the species that survives,nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.
The ability to delude yourself may be an important survival tool.
The principle is competing against yourself. It's about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.
The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.