Just Listen (I Doubt It) Evolution Interrupted

"If a tree falls in the desert and nobody is listening, does it make a sound?"

Well if I write the following blog in the Living section of the Politics and Business heavy Huffington Post and nobody reads it, does it even exist?

I don't even know why I am writing this blog, because the people who most need to read it won't. And if they do, it will only be to laugh at it and me.

In the October 11, 2009 issue of the Los Angeles Times, Susan Salter Reynolds wrote: "Faith and Belief: Richard Dawkins evolves his arguments." In that article, Dawkins who is the author of "The Selfish Gene" (1976) and "The God Delusion" (2006) takes his work on evolution another step further in his latest book, "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution." (Free Press: 470 pp., $30).

I am not an evolution doubter. I believe it is real. I believe it has happened to bring us to where we are now. However, I also believe that it is on hiatus.

To me being evolved as a human being means the capacity to empathize, care about and act to enhance the well being of not only other human beings, but the natural and non-natural world around us as well.

I see those highly evolved, "other focused" concerns and actions becoming naturally selected out in favor of transactional myopia, i.e. find what you want, get what you want, want more. I see the relating part of relationships being replaced by negotiation. "What do you want to have?" and "What do you want to do?" and "What do I have to give up to get what I want from you?" have almost entirely eclipsed "What and who do you want to be?"

It may be even that there seems to be so much more autism being identified in children, because their Asperger-like parents (goal-directed-to-a-fault, show caring by solving problems dads and homework Nazi, soccer moms) seem to be more materially successful and powerful than their more emotionally caring and better listening counterparts. Didn't Wall Street just run the table on Main Street for the nth time in recent decades?

I once read that an African native was visiting Manhattan some years ago and remarked: "They don't see the sky!" To me that means that we don't share a common transcendent, ennobling vision or pledge (such as "with liberty and justice for all"), but too often function in a "what's in it for me?" "zero sum" competitive world.

I also once heard that the measure of a (highly evolved) civilization is how it treats those who have hurt it and are hurting in it. If that is so, I would add to that native's remark, that "Their feet don't touch the ground!" meaning that we are no longer grounded in common human values that make us civilized, above other animals, human and yes, evolved.

 

 

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Comments

[Paul Castiglione]

I don't know...is it just me, but does it seem that most of the commenters above are exhibiting the very behavior you highlight in your article as unhelpful for our species...or maybe that's hyperbole and its merely unhelpful for a mutual positive experience of life within a community. That gift you suggest we carry as 'evolved' humans to empathize with one another.

I love this phrase found in the song called Stopless by neo-folk group out of Boston called Ryanhood..."How pointless is my point of view until I reach the point of you." It seems to sum your idea...perhaps with a more melodic sound within the ocean of perfectly valid yet pointless points. Does a tree make a sound when it falls in an ocean...is anyone there?

Look forward to reading your new book, 'Just Listen'

[Charles Jackson]

I am 40 years old, was an atheist and evolutionist until about2years ago, when a drunk driver ran a red light and t-boned my side of the car at about 50mph. My head smashed the driver’s side window of my car so hard, I became comatose. Several hours after the accident, the doctors rushed me into ICU, I found myself in a very dark place. I remember being on all fours with incredible heat and pressure pushing me further down into darkness. All I could feel was pain and emotional anguish. This lasted for about 5 minutes. The pain, blindness and shrieking (from the untold millions of other lost human and demonic souls inhabiting that place) became unbearable. Finally, I cried out, "Please God, I know I never believed in you before but if you are alive only you can save me from this horrible place!" Within a few seconds, I was lifted out of that terrible Venus-like Hell and into the warmth of pure light. I recognized the light as Christ as I had remembered being told about Him as a child while attending church. Christ moved me into heaven where I spent the next 2 or 3 days. This is what it was like: Infinite pleasures to experience... love... light... meaning... exuberance... intense happiness and joy. There was no arguing in both places, there was no such thing as opinion or politics. There were just pure... God-given consequences for everyone's actions and belief systems.

[Niqueth]

The author is apparently unaware of punctuated equilibrium.

Of all economic systems, capitalism resembles social darwinism the most.

The author is clearly confused.

[Mark Goulston, M.D. - Huffpost Blogger]

You were absolutely correct about my lack of awareness of punctuated equilibrium. Thank you for pointing it out and causing me to become better informed about the area.

That said, if we take evolution out of the picture, I, for one, am still bothered by the over-idealization of goalmindedness over apparently any value of experience or empathy.

Do YOU believe there is any value in empathizing with another person's experience and in communicating that empathic understanding to them?

[Mark Goulston, M.D. - Huffpost Blogger]

You're right. Evolution does continue, but mankind may not be in the picture. I remember a "New Yorker Magazine" cartoon from the 1960's that showed two amoebae speaking to each other after a nuclear holocaust had destroyed all living creatures. One said to the other: "Next time we evolve, let's leave out the brains!"

[SparXter]

OK. I hear your tree fall... And what is your point? You've just discovered that our capitalist society requires all of us to perform superhuman acts of greed and self-interest in order to survive? Welcome. Actually, evolution is hard at work behind the scenes, eradicating the infantile and destructive yearnings for eternal life (religion) out of the masses -- hand over fist! There will come a day when there will be no war because there is no longer religion to fight over... not in my lifetime, but someday!