Mickey Z. -- World News Trust
"Loyalty to a petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul." --Mark Twain
Sept. 5, 2006 -- Observation. There is perhaps no more valuable tool in the world of science. Ask Darwin. He did all right for himself observing finches, didn't he? Or ask Marcel Proust. The writer everyone pretends to read said: "The true voyage of discovery lies not is seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes."
What I've recently observed with my very own "new eyes" is an
expeditious evolution defying all previous postulations on how quickly
a species can mutate, adapt, and evolve. In terms of daily habits, it's
obvious from even the most tertiary scrutiny that Homo sapiens have
undergone a fair amount of evolution, since 1945 or so. Thus, it is in
the spirit of open-minded observers -- from Galileo to Stephen
Colbert -- that I some elementary observations:
• Humans,
thanks to rapid-fire evolution, are no longer vulnerable to toxins. The
mere act of perusing a typical American drink tap water (heavy metals
and microbes), light up a cigarette (tar and nicotine), chat on a cell
phone (electromagnetic radiation), chow down on a candy bar (sugar and
chemicals) and an un-organic piece of fruit (pesticides and GMOs), wash
it down with a glass of milk (animal protein, BGH, sub-therapeutic
levels of antibiotics, and more pesticides), wipe her or his face with
a napkin (chlorine and dyes), and then head off in a car (exhaust
emissions) to the dentist for X-rays and a filling (radiation and
mercury), is evidence enough for me. After all, would an entire nation
so readily embrace such comportment as normal if it might hurt us?
• With
the recent surge in cell phones, beepers, palm pilots, Blackberries,
and the like, isn't it safe to assume that human beings have evolved to
become far more important now than they were 20 years ago?
• Look
around you: There are televisions in your gym, in your doctor's waiting
room, in the Laundromat, airport, and every room of your house. Could
it be that we simply need, on a physiological level, more stimulus than
our ancestors did?
• Speaking
of TVs, if you combine the omnipresence of the television set with the
ever-growing popularity of the Internet and the widespread utilization
of iPod-style stereos, is it not logical to postulate that the early
twenty-first century model human needs far less face-to-face social
contact than its primitive, more chatty predecessors?
• One
more TV-related observation: Are televisions, automobiles, escalators,
and elevators proof that the necessity for exercise and physical
activity has gone the way of the dinosaur?
•Walk
into your bathroom. Walk into anyone's bathroom for that matter, and
what do you see? A medicine chest, of course. Clearly, thanks to
evolution, our immune systems have been relieved of the tedious chore
of keeping us healthy. That task has been delegated to the wonders of
modern science.
•Can
you explain why human beings behave in such a manner as to increase
global warming and the greenhouse effect, promote the destruction of
the ozone layer and the rain forests, and allow pollution to overtake
many urban areas? To me, it's easy. Our superior bodies now require
higher temperatures and less oxygen.
Now, if only some sectors of our species could simply evolve past the need for poverty, we'd really be in business.
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Mickey Z. can be found on the Web at http://www.mickeyz.net.