The Lethargy of Darwin

Here's a surprise: Human beings aren't perfect.

In fact, we're pretty messed up. It's not really our fault, evolution is a messy business. We're supremely well equipped for life on the savannah, not so much for Wall Street. Eyes that evolved for limitless horizons fail after staring all day at a screen eighteen inches away. Hearts meant to support a running hunter collapse in a sedentary office worker.

We are just not built for this modern world that we have created.

Many people believe that we should change our way of life to better fit our physical needs. Reduce our intake of sugars and meat, exercise more and so forth.  We can certainly do so, to a degree, but our lives demand more than our physiology is prepared to give. These efforts are little more than stop gaps. Very much needed stop gaps.

One day we will be able to adapt ourselves in much more fundamental ways, but that day isn't here yet.

Right now, human cloning and genetic modification are illegal across most of the planet, with good reason. Our methodologies are so crude that using them would most certainly be immoral and unethical. This, however will not be the case for long.

The time is rapidly approaching when we will not only be adept at genetic engineering, but be hard pressed to find reasons not to make use of those skills. Like I said, we are a truly messed up species, not only physically, but mentally as well. Our instincts are no more suited to modern life than our bodies are. Fight or flight made sense ten thousand years ago, but today it leads to tragedy more often than salvation. Our thought processes are crude and mostly run under the surface, giving us little control over them.

The rate of change in our societies and technologies are outstripping nature's biological coping strategies. If we hope to survive in the long term, we will have take control of our own destinies. That means removing chance from the slow, slow mechanisms of evolution.

This WILL happen somewhere, sometime. Whether you like the idea or not means absolutely nothing. Once the process begins, there will be no stopping it. Wars may be fought, millions may die, but it will continue. We will have to decide what side of the argument we will be on. Will we stand with the past or the future?

As a man will bad eyes, bad knees, a bad heart and an addictive personality, I know where I stand.

The saying goes, "Evolve or die." Well, Darwin is just too damned slow. It's our turn. Soon.

Ode to a Hairy Face

Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm here today to inform you of a little known fact.

I have a beard.

It's long, somewhat ill kept and has more than a little gray in it. It also happens to be one of my favorite things.

Now there are many reasons that I have a beard. It's manly, all human males above the age of fifteen are SUPPOSED to have hair on their faces, it's silky soft and it keeps my meals off of my ever expanding tummy, but the number one reason is that it just keeps growing there.

I hack it back every six moths or so, but otherwise leave it be.

Oh, and I'm lazy and shaving sucks.

To all you ladies who shave 60% of your bodies every day, I have only one thing to say: you are completely nuts.

A hairy face in winter.
Keep your scarf.
I am all warm and toasty.

The Era of the Super Denial

At this moment, Typhoon Haiyan is tearing through the Philippines. Bearing wind gusts up to 235 mph, it is the strongest storm to make landfall in recorded history. Last December, another category 5 "Super Typhoon" named Bopha, hit the islands claiming some 1900 lives. The year before that yet another storm hit, claiming another 1300.

How long do we have to wait? What level of destruction is enough, before we admit that it is happening?

We are in the era of the Super Storm.

Over and over, from Katrina to Sandy to Haiyan, we see these storms come. Scientists, rightly so, refuse to claim categorically that global warming is to blame. That is because that is how science works, but all save a few wingbats admit that warming is almost certainly the cause.

Those on the right use the inherent uncertainty in the scientific process to say that the issue is undecided, but they...are...wrong. The issue IS decided.

"Overwhelming consensus."

That is the phrase used by 98% of climate scientists. If you lift your nose at that, then you are living in a dream world while the rest of us have to deal with the nightmare.

The carbon that we have already put into the atmosphere will persist there for at least another 100 years, so we will be dealing with the effects no matter what we do, but for the sake of our grandchildren and great grandchildren we have to act NOW.

Otherwise, the nightmares of today will be fond memories for the generations to come.

Doc Hendley

We just finished shooting "A Conversation with Doc Hendley" here in the KACV studios. He started a charity called Wine to Water. They travel around the world digging wells and helping to ensure access to clean water.

He's a great guy.  He was a bartender in 2003 who decided that he needed to do more. A real testament to what a person can achieve when they stop listening to that little voice that whispers, "You can't..."

Doc Hendley

Welcome

Well, I went and done it.

This is the new home of my random rambling ruminations.

Things you might find here in the days and years to come:

Thoughtful consideration of events small and large.
Opinions that you will likely disagree with.
Opinions that you will DEFINITELY disagree with.
Story fragments and ideas.
My excitement over new discoveries and toys.
My disappointment with and love for the human species.
The odd condescending lecture.


Things that you will NOT find here:

  What I had for lunch.


I hope that you will be entertained and informed by this little experiment, but I make no guarantees.

Welcome to my brain.

America the Sociopathic

We have been told, since the days of Horace Greeley, that our primary purpose in life should be to "get ahead." That the pursuit of wealth and influence was the greatest expression of what it meant to be an American.

They were right. It is.

Therein lies the problem.

The American psyche has become increasingly distorted by this ungentle worldview over the last century plus. While it has allowed this country to become the most powerful in the history of mankind, it has also leeched us of much of our intrinsic humanity. It has made us into a society of sociopaths.

There are three primary characteristics of the sociopath (or more correctly: psychopath):*

1. Boldness. Low fear including stress-tolerance, toleration of unfamiliarity and danger, and high self-confidence and social assertiveness.

2. Disinhibition. Poor impulse control including problems with planning and foresight, lacking affect and urge control, demand for immediate gratification, and poor behavioral restraints.

3. A quality once popularly known as meanness. That is, lacking empathy and close attachments with others, disdain of close attachments, use of cruelty to gain empowerment, exploitative tendencies, defiance of authority, and destructive excitement seeking. This is often a result of the first two characteristics.

The first characteristic is often prized above all others in our society. Boldness, confidence and assertiveness. All are cultivated and valued. Those who possess all three are the most likely to rise to positions of authority in business or government.

The second is an obvious characteristic of modern America. Planning and forethought are valued in the short term (though rarely practiced), but disregarded in the long. Lack of urge control and the need for immediate gratification are much prized qualities in today's consumer and, while not cultivated as such, are not strongly discouraged either.

The last is never openly encouraged, but it is often the most handsomely rewarded. Meanness allows one to rise to the top, feeling little or no remorse over those who have been hurt along the way. Whether as the rugged entrepreneur, the noisy populist, the death defying stunt master or the powerful sports star, the ability to step on your competition without looking back will give a great advantage and there is no downside so long as you succeed.

That is modern America. A place where the characteristics of a sociopath are lauded and rewarded.

This is true in other parts of the world as well, but not to the degree that we see here at home.

We should not look to the pursuit of wealth as our primary activity. Business is a necessary and useful part of society, but only a part of it. Scientists, teachers, police and a thousand other occupations are just as important. Should they be less rewarded than the entrepreneur or the CEO? Is the life of a woman who decides to spend her days helping others less valuable than one who makes a fortune in the stock market? Of course not, but money has become the sole marker of value and one certainly has more than the other.

I have no answers to these problems, but that doesn't mean that they should be ignored. If there is one thing that America does not lack, it is genius and ingenuity.

Perhaps it is time time to bend those great qualities toward creating a society that values more than monetary success.

* I lifted the definitions from wikipedia