I have been reading the times over the last couple months, and I found that people are becoming crazier, and it seems that those random acts of anger and wierd occurings are happening more often in a shorter period of time. Here are some stories I have read in the news in the last couple months:
1. In a healthcare rally, a pro-healthcare overhaul individual got her/his finger bitten off by a an anti-healthcare protester.
2. During a speech in a joint session of Congress, Sen Wilson screamed "You Lie" to the President. He later apologized, but the damage had been done. He will be rebuked on the House floor (something I disagree with)and it has resulted in 1.5 million dollars of contributions to his campaign for 2010, as well as his opponents.
3. The Yankees and Blue Jays got in a bench-clearing fight that ended with cuts a bruises and 2 ejections.
4. A man at a healthcare town hall called for the death of Obama and his family.
5. People in Phoenix,AZ carried guns to an Obama speech about healthcare.
6. Bill O'Reilly gave Glenn Beck a copy of his book, with an inscription inside by...Jay-Z?!?!?
7. Glenn Beck continues to see higher ratings and increased audience.
8. After deciding to run the ball instead of down it, Leodis McKelvin's gave the Patriots a game winning fumble. Later, his lawn was vandalized with the score 25-24 on it.
9. Danny Pang, investor extraordinaire was found dead in his apartment. He had been under investigation for operating a Ponzi Scheme, which included using investors money to buy a private jet to Vegas, pay for some of the female staff to go with and then showering them with money on the plane. Further investigation might show that he might have never received his BA, or MBA for that matter, from UCI, as he claimed.
10. Roger Federer, #1 in the world, was beat by a 20 yr old Argentinian Juan Martin Del Potro.
11. Serena Williams cussed out the lines-woman, resulting in a 1 pt fault, leading to her defeat by technicality.
12. After almost 100 yrs of good service, water pipes are breaking in multiple places all over the San Fernando Valley, and nobody knows why.
13. No Republicans have decided to back the highly compromised Baucus healthcare bill, and because of the compromises, some liberal democrats might not back in either.
14. A caucus at CPAC asked to run a special meeting on the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate. CPAC denied their request.
15. A group called the 10thers, who are based on what they call a "strict" interpretation of the 10th amendment powers delegation clause, called for all states to reject an Obama signed healthcare bill because they think the states have sovereignty over the Fed in all regards. They also think that FDR used the depression to overthrow the constitution, John C Calhoun was right in his nullification doctrine (a precursor to secession) and that Marbury v Madison which created the Supreme Court's power of Judicial Review was unconstitutional because only state legislatures can do that. Jim DeMint, a SENATOR (that's right, a Senator) from South Carolina, also a 10ther, called Medicare and Social Security "probably unconstitutional (not remembering the fact that a lot of the residents of S Carolina are on both).
16. The admission by some groups at healthcare rallies that they were really using healthcare as a "metaphor" and the bigger struggle was stopping the spread of Socialism.
17. A student at Johns Hopkins University killed and intruder with a Samurai Sword.
18. Someone was shot to death on the campus of UC Irvine. In 2006, Irvine was voted one of the safest cities in the country.
Lastly, there was a story in the Time yesterday that said that evidence has shown that human have evolved at a higher rate because of things like domestication of animals and urbanization. The story explained that common genes, like the ability to digest milk, were passed on more rapidly to higher populations before any significant mutation could take place. This means that the higher the population, the faster genes evolve, which means the faster a favorable mutation could arise. Anybody who has taken high school biology knows that mutations are oftentimes the drivers of evolution, but those mutations take a long to take effect in large and often separated populations. New environments create hardships and humans are forced to adapt to them. And, we have...relatively quickly on an evolutionary scale. This accounts for lighter skin in Northern peoples and things like malaria resistance in Blacks, but not Asians or Whites.
I find this article very appropriate. It shows that humans are a resilient species and can adapt to harsh environments very quickly. But, is it really because we are superior in any way from a close nit group of animals? The findings are based on the fact that because we live in close quarter in big populations that we transmit genes and favorable mutations faster, driving evolution. This means that it is possible to have a disconnect between evolutionary change and intelligence. By no means do I believe that the urbanization of human society was done by dumb apes, but in fact hard working intelligent architects, planners, farmers, scientists, etc. But, with that established do we really find ourselves socially evolving in a progressive way? I would say the jury is out on this one. On one side we have good ideas, smart businessmen, etc. But, on the other side we have people who represent an undermining of our media through unintelligible use of our social space. I am talking about birthers, 10thers, truthers, 912ers and the pundits. In the 1950s we searched our collective psychological medium through experimentation to find out how one person (Hitler) could persuade so many that death and exclusion were mainstays of a "master race" and a united Germany, and blind people from the stench of rotting flesh. The experiments showed that a person with perceived authority will always convince those who believe they have been lacking authority or are disenfranchised, by using propaganda and often fallacious arguments. In my mind, the current situation had confirmed such results. Our social discourse has turned into a fractured platform for irrelevancies.
My ending question: Are we really evolving if we cherish that which is anathema to progress?
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