Monday, April 16, 2007

Evolution? Bah!

The local New Year celebration (Songkran) is winding down. The cleanup crews are out in force, shoveling the drifts of discarded trash with what look very much like snow shovels (snow! in Thailand!) and packing it into garbage trucks lined up almost bumper-to-bumper.
Most of the trash is plastic. Most of the trash is empty bags.
It has always been a source of irritation to me that people can seemingly without effort carry bags filled with heavy objects - but, when the bags are empty, they become too heavy to carry any longer, and drop to the ground, discarded. Not unique to Thailand. In California, those eager picnikers can carry a huge amount of food to the beach; the empty bags are too heavy to take back home after the fest.
In fact; this is an example confirming something I have long believed.
When a bag is empty; when an object loses its utility; when one has no need for the object-in-the-hand; discard it.
In short, man has not evolved from the rodent-brained knuckle-dragger of the Paleolithic era. Society has evolved, certainly; but the members of the society remain largely unchanged. Ever since the first time a man picked up a tool (a rock, a stick, a bone)(probably to bash the head of his best friend and take away that tasty morsel of rodent he wouldn't share); when a new and improved tool (a rock, a stick, a bone) is seen, before it can be picked up, the old one must be dropped. Returned to the earth from whence it came, as it were.
Thus, rodent-brained man has continued down the millenia, through the Acheulean, the Mousterian, the Tin, the Bronze, the Iron, the Dark, the Industrial, the Atomic Ages and all the Ages in between, essentially unchanged from that old-stone-age nomad who picked up the first 'tool' (rock, stick, bone).
The difference is that today, when one discards that which is in one's hands, it isn't being returned to the earth from whence it came. It didn't come from the earth - it came from a factory. It really doesn't belong on the ground, or in the bushes, or in the water.
Try telling that to the rodent-brained knuckle-dragger of the modern era. But be careful. One might also reflect that, if indeed man is still in a Paleolithic state, mentally speaking, it might be wise to consider the consequences when one hires someone to fix something that's broken around the home. What if Mr. Paleolithic Man doesn't have the right tool (rock, stick, bone)? What is the likely result? Not knowable, I think, but likely not to be good.
Conclusion: While the world around us evolves, man, stubborn rodent-brained knuckle-dragging Paleolithic man, remains unchanged. In fact, we now find out that Chimps more evolved than humans One need only look at the White House to see a prime example of this.

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