Sunday, June 25, 2006

Serve our Masters

Life was raised by mother Evolution to probe, question, think and look under the hood. To listen for loose tappets in the engines around them, for signs of impending failure. And to boil it all down to a neat cause-and-effect continuum in our minds.

Life did this because it lead to understanding, and understanding lead to a greater chance for survival, of seeing another sunrise. These organism strains survived and thrived, and spawned more like themselves, that were driven to understand, dissect, analyse and model with ever increasing efficiency.

Evolution was on its game - the creatures were reared to be hunters on the great plains, to kill when called upon - for providing food, for protecting kin, or for sport.

Somewhere along this path humankind took an exit to Neverland - they stopped being nomads and settled down, because agrarian. Brains gradually became less preoccupied with thoughts of the next meal or the next predator. All the spare time started being employed in self indulgent pursuits such as greed, depression, sloth, envy.. (wink wink).

How do we serve our only real master, how do we serve Evolution? Are we to continue the push upwards, ever onwards, faster, sleeker, stronger, longer - is this instruction wired into our genome somewhere? 

All of Creation serves Evolution - but in two diametrically opposite ways. One group is sacrificed, the other does the sacrificing.

Is Selection still operational, or have we stifled it with concrete housing, health -care, creches, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION? 

No comments: