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Saturday, April 26, 2008

Like a monkey ready to be shot into space...

space monkey!

Ok, if you've never seen Fight Club, stop reading now and go netflix it. It's my favorite movie and I have always had this cool idea about it and I thought this would be a good place to articulate it.

The Hair is mightier than the Clippers
In the movie there are a variety of characters with varying levels of importance. You have Ed Norton, the central character, Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden, Helena Bonham Carter as Marla Singer, Meatloaf as Robert Paulson, Jared Leto as Angel Face and Holt McCallany as the Mechanic. There are others, but for my purposes these 6 are all that I will really need to reference.

Lets take a look at where these characters fall in the power levels in this movie. You have Brad Pitt and Ed Norton who are obviously the main entities despite the fact that one is much stronger than the other. However, they compliment each other well and given the conclusion of the movie, it makes a fair amount of sense. They are each in control of Fight Club at varying times in the movie meaning that they stand out above the rest. Notice here that I choose my words very carefully. They STAND OUT and they are ABOVE the rest in the sense that they are in control. However, it would seem that the dynamic of this group would challenge authority because they are challenging the general authority of a capitalistic government. We'll get back to that. But let me just say here that both characters have hair, it isn't really long, but it's there.

Now lets take a look at Marla Singer. She is a complicated character in both Brad Pitt and Ed Norton's respective roles. At times she is the dark angel that brings twisted joy into both their lives but she is also someone that is feared by Project Mayhem at certain points in the movie because she "knows too much". She STANDS OUT in this collection of faceless characters and threatens the goals of Project Mayhem towards the end of the movie. She, in addition to Brad and Ed, has hair, not really long, but hair none the less.

Ok so these are the three main characters that find each other outside the realm of Fight Club. They have their lives and their varying styles which include hair length, ok no big deal. Now lets take a look at some of the characters that join the ranks later in the movie.

Once the Fight Club thing has been rolling for awhile new members begin showing up to the door at the house on Paper St to begin their training in Project Mayhem. They have to sit outside for 3 days without "food, shelter, or encouragement" and they can then come in. The first person to do this is basically nameless and he sits outside for his required duration. However, once he gets inside what is the first thing that is done to him? He shaves his head to which Brad replies "Like a monkey ready to be shot into space. Space Monkey!" At this point, whatever feeble identity this character had is now absolutely gone. He has his hair butchered and now he is a cog in the Project Mayhem wheel.

Now who are the next two characters that join the ranks? Meatloaf and Jared Leto. When Tyler first discourages Meatloaf because he's "too old, fat man and you're tits are too big", he puts his tail between his legs and heads out. Ed stops him however and lets him know that he has to sit through the battery if he wants in. In any event, at this moment, Ed Norton's and Meatloaf's relationship transcends their initial "self-help" group relationship to something within Project Mayhem. There is emotion there and rather than have Robert Paulson be just another cog in the wheel, Ed Norton sees him as something else. Why do I mention this? Well after Meatloaf makes it in the door he DOES NOT shave his head. He hangs out, does his duty as a member of PM but he doesn't lose the do.

More of the same with Jared Leto. He steps onto the doorstep with his "too fucking blond" hairdo and waits out the 3 days. Angel Face's character is a bit more complicated than Meatloaf's. His importance does not come in until later but like Meatloaf, Marla, Tyler and Ed Norton, he gets to keep his hair. The time in the movie where Angel Face's significance is realized is when they apprehend the man in charge of the investigation of the "underground boxing clubs". Once they scare the crap out of the guy and then disband, Brad Pitt and Jared Leto are seen being friendly with one another while Ed Norton watches in jealousy and hate. This is where emotion enters the arena for this character. Ed Norton has a collection of ill emotions towards Angel Face and Jared's brilliant blond hair is a symbol of this. It is flaunted as a reminder that Jared STANDS OUT in the sea of bald hooligans.

So here are 5 characters with varying levels of emotional attachment and importance to one another. Now, lets talk about the representative of the faceless army crowd, the Mechanic. What a perfect character name for this person. He is die hard for PM and carries out every "homework assignment" with the utmost dedication and precision, especially the "two birds with one stone" job with the destruction of corporate art and franchise coffee bar. This character, like most of the bodies in the Paper St house, is bald and nameless. He, like the rest, doesn't matter, they are just worker bees that live and breath as one. A great line in the movie comes when Ed Norton thinks to himself, "the house had become a living thing" with all of these cells working as one. They carry no emotional attachment to Ed Norton and in essence DO NOT stand out.

So why all this dialog about hair length? Who cares? In my opinion the most exciting part of this movie comes when Ed Norton realizes that Brad Pitt is not an actual person, but a figment of his own imagination. When this happens, Brad Pitt magically enters the room bitching to Ed Norton about how he "fucking talked to her about me". But he has changed. His style still remains, but now instead of his short scruffy hair, he is now bald.

Now, instead of having Brad as an emotional entity in Ed Norton's life, he realizes that he is a figment of his imagination. He isn't real. Ed Norton may battle with his psyche about what is real and what is not, but for all intents and purposes Brad Pitt no longer stands out. He ceases to have an individuality and that loss of individuality is represented with his loss of hair. Now, unlike Meatloaf, Jared Leto, Marla and Ed Norton, he stops becoming a separate entity and is relegated to a cog in the PM wheel. His hair looks just like every other member in PM and his commitment to the destruction of corporate america is just as real as every other "space monkey".

So I say STAND OUT and emotional entity, but what does that really mean? Maybe hair length is the symbol of the real world beckoning Ed Norton to not slip into the depths of conformity along his PM lineage. It is ironic that PM has become the single, one minded, entity that Fight Club set out destroy at the onset of the movie. Perhaps it is poetic justice that Ed Norton destroys his alter ego and PM at the end. It is almost as if the two battling foes must destroy each other and from the ashes people can adopt a culture their own, without capitalistic influence. In any event, I think hair length is the shadow of Ed Norton's emotions and these emotions are what keep him from falling completely into PM. His twisted love for Marla is manifested into her deranged and unconventional appearance. His loyalty and morality is shown with his relationship with Meatlof. Although Robert Paulson may be a titted 50 something freak, Ed Norton sees the weakness within himself in this sad character and his commitment to protecting him is shown with Robert's hair.

Conversely, the twisted nature of Ed Norton, and perhaps the writer Chuck Palahnuik, is shown with his hatred for Angel Face. For the mainstream, Jared Leto is ideal, which is probably why he was cast as the character. He is attractive, non-threatening and has a beautiful head of hair. However, Ed Norton is an unorthodox character and perhaps he hates all that he is not or all that society wants people to like. Tyler's favoritism to Leto is only the beginning and his hate and anger is manifested in Leto's blond locks.

As for the Mechanic, Ed Norton has no emotional connection to this character. He is just puzzled at their behavior. "You guys were running around in ski masks trying to blow things up. What did you think was going to happen?". Words he mutters as he is trying to protect Robert Paulson from being buried like an animal instead of "a person". The Mechanic has no hair because the emotional exchange here is not towards the Mechanic, but for Robert Paulson. He may be frustrated but more than anything, he is afraid. He is afraid for Robert, he is afraid for Marla and he is afraid for himself, which is why all of these characters maintain their hair.

However, once Tyler loses his emotional connection to Ed Norton or perhaps a better way of wording it, is that Ed Norton's connection to Tyler now becomes internal. Ed's fear extends from Marla and Robert to himself. He is now terrified at what his life has become and Brad loses his hair because now the emotional response that Ed had for Tyler, in friendship and respect, has now been turned inward as fear and panic. Regardless, Ed's hair remains and Tyler's does not.

Ed Norton has basically snapped out of it and his emotional development has come full circle from an insomnia plagued corporate drone to an enlightened but hopelessly confused individual. Regardless, his development is very real and he has Marla to share in his new identity. It seems as if the destruction of Corporate America is a huge casualty of war in the struggle for self-discovery, but perhaps it is an irony that the author is trying to articulate. The whole movie is based on the idea that all things that do not matter should simply slide. In stuffing mainstream junk down our throats, Corporate America has in essence eliminated our self-discovery and only with the destruction of these conglomerates, can we begin to realize who and what we are and what we want. It is quite a price to pay and the route Ed Norton has chosen to take is quite bizarre. Project Mayhem was just that, Mayhem. I suppose the use of such an extreme by the author shows what we are capable of and what we are missing out on. Needless to say, Project Mayhem almost became the force that it set out to destroy and in the end Ed Norton had to eliminate it.

In any event, this is just something I have thought about for a long time and I always thought it was interesting. This is movie is amazing on a variety of levels and this is just one of them. Next time you watch, take a look and maybe you'll see something I haven't. Remember, every stupid nuance, every weird element to any artistic movie has a meaning. The author or director has a message in all of these elements and if you can find meaning in them (even if it is not the intended one) you have been moved by a piece of art.

just my thoughts

match unleaded

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Growing Up sucks...

because if it didn't, adulthood would suck more

As an adult I have come into contact with a variety of people from all over the country. I was born and raised in Southern California. I spent a lot of time with your stereotypical rich white suburban, snow boarding, OC folks and then I went to college in San Diego. There I got the gambit that is California from San Diego to Redding. The west coast folks are similar but the NorCal vs SoCal distinction is still fairly prominent. I think NorCal folks are a lot like New Englanders in the sense that they are very liberal and educated. Very green minded people that like public transportation, Trader Joe's, and independently produced music. SoCal people are a bit more superficial. They don't shop in thrift stores as much (ie brand names matter), they are a little less liberal because LA has a lot of old money (no silicon valley/tech millionaires), and folks are a bit more chill meaning you get a lot of surfer/snowboarders with beach bum attitudes.

Ok so California has a crop of folks that are sort of interesting, big deal. After college I sacked up and moved to the opposite end of the country and landed in NE for grad school. Here, I have come across SOO many different kinds of people and because of my ultimate background, I have been across the country and have met people from varying walks of life and I have come to some conclusions about growing up and what it takes to be a well adjusted adult (at least in my opinion).

Life Experience - Something everyone wants but no one wants to get
In today's Internet world, life, beginning to end, all across the globe has been mapped out and documented. At birth people are thinking about college funds and educational paths that will land their son or daughter into the best high schools. Then you get through the educational melee only to go for the best of the best schools which will get you the best internships and the best jobs.

And don't forget about your retirement. Gotta get that 401K started early and make sure you have life insurance so that everything beginning to end is secure safe and perfect. You've also got Dr. Phil telling you how to raise your kids and a bunch of politicians trying to legislate morality and ethics.

So what is my gripe? Life sucks and there is a reason for it. Growing up isn't just about getting your training wheels off or graduating high school, it comes from fucking up. We have all been there. We say the wrong thing or hang out with the wrong crowd and get ourselves in a whole heap of trouble. No big deal, we all screw up, thats how we learn.

So what's the problem? Well the way I see it, everybody wants the perfect life now-a-days and beyond that, people just don't want to get screwed over. Parents shelter their kids with private schools and strict rules to prevent them from falling into the wrong crowds and getting busted. They are encouraged to stay abstinent and drug-free and for all intents and purposes these are all noble aspirations, but this really inhibits growing up. Yes, underage kids should not drink and do drugs but the rationale goes wayy beyond that. Avoiding these things should be the product of understanding them and choosing to avoid the consequences rather than dodging them because they are illegal, which seems to be the rationale.

Take alcohol for example. I never touched the stuff until i was 18. It was the week before my prom and I was going to stay at a beach house after prom for the weekend with some friends and there was going to be drinking involved. Rather than keep everything a big secret, I told my mom everything. We have a very close relationship and she understood the position I was in because, low and behold, she was actually 18 once. In any event, rather than dodge the issue and drink behind close doors with a bunch of teenagers, I asked her if I could get wasted at the house the week before. This may seem like poor parenting, but in reality, she gave me a relatively low risk environment with which to experiment. I got blitzed, I was hung over the next day and I learned in 1 safe sitting, some of the dangers associated with drinking. Had I not done this, who knows if I would have gone over board during my prom weekend and I knew going into college what I was in for and I avoided trips to the health center because I didn't over do it.

So when it comes to negotiating the alcohol issue with teenagers, telling them not to do it because it is bad and illegal is pretty useless. Yes the legal drinking age is 21 but kids rarely wait that long and even if they do, what? Are they are supposed to have maturity all of a sudden? I had a friend wait until he was 21 for the sole reason that it was illegal and on the day of his 21st birthday he had a great time and the thing he kept saying over and over was "Why did I wait so long? What a waste."  He learned a lesson that day.  Don't do something just because someone told you not to.

Anyway the point is that in order to learn you have to suffer and that suffering can come in a variety of ways. You can either get safe exposure to alcohol when you are younger and get an idea of the pros and cons or you can avoid the topic completely and then when it is handed to you, have no idea what the hell to do. Guess which situation results in more suffering? Things like girls getting taken advantage of at Frat parties and freshman alcohol poisoning, I think, result because people are unprepared. In any event, its ok to break the rules a little bit. They are political and bogus and the reality is, the drinking age is 21 because if it isn't states will not receive federal funding for highways. I dunno about you, but that is not the moral/ethical rationale I want governing my life.

In addition to alcohol, another topic that I think goes down these lines is sex, especially in women. Take the virginity issue. Women are conditioned to be abstinent to avoid things like teenage pregnancy, STDs and just making choices that they will regret. However, blanket abstinence is NOT the way to go about this.

Take the actual event of losing your V-card. This is usually going to suck for all parties. Take the ideal example and some girl gets her fairy tail wish of candles and soft blankets and her one true love and all that crap and has her first time in a beautiful environment. The only way that she will ever be pain free is if the guy marries her and I am willing to bet that most guys are looking to NOT marry their first. Anyway, they either get married or they break up. If they get married, for the rest of their lives they will have a very limited view of reality and when it comes to things like parenting and what not, they will just tell their kids "I married my first" which may have worked for them but good luck with your children. And if the couple doesn't get married, the woman will suffer the pain of NOT marrying her first and have to be relegated to find someone else and probably some one else after that and so on. In any event, the bottom line here is that life sucks and you don't always get what you want. People are self-interested and things don't always turn out the way you want.

Lets take the sorriest example (which I have come across a few times) and talk to a woman that didn't lose her V-card at 16 or 17 like most people and is now 23 or 24 living in an adult world. They now have NO idea what the hell they are doing. Everyone they try and date has already been through that experience and has learned from it. However, taking a woman's virginity at 24 or so is a daunting task because thats when couples usually start to think about getting married and scarring a woman at 17 is different than 24. You now have a woman who has held onto something her whole life because she was told to and now she has it and all she wants to do is think about something else. She has zero understanding of sex and having relationships in an adult world without an understanding of sex is pretty tough. Sex is like money, you can't understand it if you don't have it. Can you imagine taking financial advise from someone that has never worked a day in their life? They would have no idea what the value of a dollar was, how easy/hard it is to earn/spend or what to do with it.

In any event, the bottom line here is that you have to suffer to grow up. You have to go through a perilous experience that results in tears and frustration because you get SO much out of it. 1) you learn that life does go on, so when/if something like that happens again, you will have the knowledge that you can get through bullshit 2) you can anticipate dangerous situations both for yourself and people you care about and 3) you develop a more complex understanding of the topic at hand. If you talk to someone that has never drank, all they can think about is alcoholism and hangovers, but if you have drank before, you'd know that you can get a buzz without a hangover and you can drink without being an alcoholic. Same with sex. After learning that sex happens and people go their separate ways, you'll understand that just because two people have been intimate doesn't mean they need to marry each other. Say you are sexually frustrated in a relationship, which happens, if you have experience you know what you are willing to put up with and what you are not. If you are sexually inexperienced you have no idea what the hell you are doing and I am sure that while most parents don't want their 16 year old screwing around, they REALLY don't want a 30 year old child interacting in an adult world that can hurt and destroy an innocent mind, one with no protection.

So the take home is don't be afraid to get screwed over. Maybe this message is for teenagers, but I feel like risk taking is what life is about. Yes you can get hurt, but you'll never know unless you try. Life experience is learning from life and that only happens when you fuck up. It would be nice if we remembered our successes as much as our failures but we all know we remember the later more than the former. That is why growing up is so hard. You have to learn these lessons the hard way and what better time to do it than when you have your parents to help you out. Yes alcohol, sex and drugs can ruin someone's life, but that doesn't articulate the point well enough. All of them carry taboo standings because of political reasons which may be nice for elections and policy but is that what you want controlling your daily life? Wouldn't you rather understand what you are afraid of? Recreational use of each is possible, as is abuse and knowing the difference is what separates a child from an adult.

So parents, level with your kids. It isn't enough to keep them from danger, they have to understand it. Telling them to look both ways before they cross the street is easy because the consequences are real and immediate. However, avoiding sex, drugs and alcohol are not that simple, especially because they are "fun". The more you discourage "fun" the more "fun" it becomes. Rather than skirt the issue, why not attack it? It is no wonder that Europeans have kids drink at an early age because they begin to understand it, just like anything else, so that when they are 18 they don't start getting bombed at house parties and make all kinds of stupid mistakes because they don't realize what they are doing.

Same with sex. Abstinence is such a retarded concept. Preaching abstinence is useless because it fails to educate. People don't just all of a sudden realize what being "in love" is and when the time is right. They have to have the experience of having sex when it isn't time and when they aren't in love. This scars them, makes them hurt but it also helps them learn to not make that mistake again.

In end, life isn't perfect. It sucks A LOT and losing innocence is going to happen sooner or later. Perhaps it would be good to learn the sex, drug, and alcohol lessons when you aren't all on your own. I had a really tough childhood but now I know what I want and what I don't want. Very little scares me because I have been fucked over so many times. I have learned lose lessons and now I believe that I am a well adjusted adult. It took a lot of rough times, but I was a kid for 18 years and will be an adult for 2-3 times that. Wouldn't you rather suffer first and be happy second?

just my thoughts

match unleaded

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Intelligence vs Ambition

In the 7 or so years that I have been in higher education I have learned a lot about people and their career/academic development and have come to some conclusions.

Intelligence
Being intelligent is definitely a good thing. You have those bright kids that learn quickly and perform very well in school at a very early age. Starting in, lets say, 2nd grade, they are quick to learn math and science, maybe they have a good memory so history is easy for them. Perhaps they are socially inclined so language skills come natural. Regardless, these sorts of kids get used to doing well which gives them confidence and they go into high school thinking they are on top of the world.

High School comes and goes and some of these kids barely have to lift a finger to do well. When I was a freshman at UCSD, I can remember hearing so many different people in high school talk about how easy it was, thereby reflecting their intelligence.

But then what happens? College is tough and things aren't so easy anymore. Things stop going from how fast you understand it, to how hard you are going to work for it. Maybe you can get C's, or even B's, by just doing what you did when you were in high school and after 10 or so years of having things come naturally, your work ethic is pretty crappy. I can remember hearing so many people say that they procrastinated a ton in high school or even college as if it was something to brag about. Lesson to the young ones out there, THERE IS NOTHING MORE PATHETIC THAN PROCRASTINATION. You want to fail in life? Put things off, see where it gets you.

After about a year or two in college these kids realize how hard things are and rather than do things that require work and effort, they stick with things that come naturally so that they can continue their effortless lifestyle. This is where majors like Communications and Political Science are advantageous. Not to say they are worthless, but they are easy to fake and just like science, there is a big difference between getting a degree in a major and using it in your career.

In the end, they get a degree in something they can't use because they aren't actually interested in it. Then they look for a job and they realize, "Oh Shit, I have no experience, passion or drive. What the hell am I going to do now?" This is when intelligence becomes useless. Everyone out there caught up and instead of being naturally brilliant, they had to struggle and they picked up a thing or two along the way. Now they are the ones succeeding and the intelligent folks out there sit back and know they could have done it better, had they just wanted to.

Ambition
This is something I like to think I have. I did well in school as a kid and college student, but not because I was smart. I wanted to do well. I wanted to to achieve and most of the time, I had to bust my ass to do so. I wanted to do something useful, something I liked. I had friends that were smart and only had to work half as hard as I did but I sucked it up and put in my hours.

Then college came. This was a great time. Freshman year a few "brilliant" friends of mine slacked off. This doesn't mean they partied and I didn't, because I actually partied harder, but they were lazy. Just like procrastinators, some folks would brag about being lazy. Is there anything more pathetic? Why would you openly say that you have wants and desires but don't have the drive to put them into place? Laziness is why America is losing it's standing in world economics and I can't understand why people just sit on their ass.

So these brilliant kids would sleep in, ditch class and basically do nothing. They dodged 8am classes because "they were too early (pouting voice)." Are you fucking serious? Life is hard, suck it up and get your ass to class. Of course they knew everything and didn't have to study, but my dumb ass went to the library instead. Come test day, guess which one of us was reeling in the A's and which one got C's.

Then graduation came. I had spent hours and hours in classes and labs and I knew what I liked and what I hated. After 4 years of work, I knew I wanted to get my PhD (actually I knew at about 12, but whatever) and because I had a decent track record I got into some good schools. Now I am at Yale getting my PhD and my future is in good hands, my own.

As for the "brilliant" ones, ambition waved bye bye to them. After graduating with easy degrees or degrees they wanted with little/no effort, they had the dumbest looks on their faces.

"What do I do now?" Guess what? They went with what they had chosen their whole life, what was easy, what came naturally. Well in the work force, if you want money, you are going to either have to earn with your hands or your mind and considering they hadn't pushed their mental capacity since 2nd grade, their hands were all they had. Sure they could work a decent job here or there, but nothing close to their so called "potential."

Bottom Line
Anyway, here is the bottom line: Up until you are about 18 or so intelligence can get you as far as you need to go. This makes sense, human beings have evolved to have sexual maturity at this age and so you pass your genes on and you basically have served your purpose. However, once you become an adult, it's all about your ambition. It all becomes what are you going to do with your raw materials. How hard are you going work? Your mindset SHOULD NOT be "what can I get with as little effort as possible", it should be, "what can I get with as much effort as possible."

I have many friends that are much smarter than I am but few have gotten this far. They wanted what was easy and that is such a tragedy. It actually is a necessary tragedy though. We need middle of the road grunt work. I don't mean gardeners or construction workers, I mean intelligent people in non-creative, non-mobile careers. Accountants, engineers, and "consultants" that can do their jobs, but hate them. They don't like it, they just do it mindlessly.

So what's the secret to life? What's it all mean? Spend your youth developing your work ethic because in the process you will learn what you like and don't like and spend your adulthood simply enjoying what you like. Work for something, if only yourself. Don't be a couch potato, even if you can be. There is nothing more pathetic than someone talking down success because they didn't care enough. You aren't in 10th grade anymore trying to impress some chick with your rebel without a cause attitude. You want to get chicks as an adult? You want to be happy as an adult? You have to earn it. Get off your ass and do something with your life.

I suppose the first question a person would ask me is, "Why should I listen to you?"  For which my response is, "I could not be happier with my life, even with all my bullshit and my failures. I have made many mistakes and done many things I regret but the golden years of my life are the ones I am living. You have a better route? Take it, screw me and my opinions. You write a blog entry about it and I'll listen. Till then, take notes."

just my thoughts

match unleaded

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Please sir, I want some more

(Ok so I love to write and I have a lot to say about a lot of different things.  Yes I love ultimate, A LOT, but I also like a lot of other things as well.  I wanted the chance to get some things out that were not ultimate related so I thought I would start a second blog for that.)

Modern Evolution
So I saw this movie called Waking Life a while back and it really had an impact on me.  Granted, you need to be a little "sizzled" up for this sort of movie to make any sense but it is very interesting if you have the mental capacity.  Anyway, the basic plot line revolves around free dreaming, ie realizing that you are asleep in your dream, thereby giving you the control to do whatever you want.  This is a fun topic but I am not interested in it.  What I am interested in is the second topic that is popular in this movie, Modern Evolution.  

So this is a weird topic because it challenges a lot of preconceived notions.  At first mention, a word like "Evolution" inspires thoughts of dinosaurs, and cave men, maybe some amphibious sort of fish thing.  However, the topic itself is much more than that.  In my opinion, human beings think that we are done evolving (and one can argue that we are close) but in reality, we are just impatient.  Evolution takes so long and moves so slowly that it is hard to see it in a lifetime or even a century or two.  However, evolution is still occurring whether we can see it or not.

So what am I talking about?  I thought I would discuss a few elements of human evolution that I think are going on and they make sense if looked at in the right perspective.

A Bit on Perspective
What do I mean about the right perspective?  Everything happens for a reason.  Our fingernails, appendix, social inclinations, even why asians glow when they drink, all have an evolutionary basis.  No element of our bodies just hangs around, there has to be selective pressure for it and the trick to is to understand the selective pressure.

The Asian Glow
This is one of my favorite things to talk about at parties, usually because I seek out asians and it is a good conversation starter.  Anybody know why asians glow in the first place?  There are a variety of theories on this but the one I like is the parasite hypothesis.

In alcohol metabolism there are three steps, ethanol -> acetylaldehyde -> acetate (which is a metabolite the cell can use).  The 2 arrows correspond to 2 enzymes, alcohol dehydrogenase, and aldehyde dehydrogenase.  The names are unimportant, but what is important is the first enzyme.  It is overactive in some asian populations and generates more acetylaldehyde than normal.  This intermediate is highly toxic to our bodies which is why asians have that red glow and can feel warm.  It is basically an inflammation response like a cold or infection.  

However, this intermediate is also toxic to other organisms, such as mosquitos and parasites.  Meaning that a million years ago, if an asian person was working in the fields or simply just hanging out in a humid insect filled environment, all they needed to do was drink a little bit of rice wine, get a nice buzz going and "presto", you have a natural insecticide.

Staving off parasite infection was thus the necessary selective pressure to allow asians to survive and pass on their genes and now in the 21st century we have a relic phenotype that a lot of people are self-conscience about and should not be.  Those people are living representations of modern evolution and despite the stigma, should be proud of their genes.

The Appendix
So we all know that the appendix is basically the tonsil of the digestive tract.  It isn't really needed but if it goes haywire, it can cause sepsis.  So why have it in the first place?

Millions of years ago, human beings were not as capable as we are now.  Things like fire were a bit beyond our grasp and we had to rely on eating things we don't eat now like raw meat.  At that point, the appendix served as a dead end organ that housed high concentrations of enzymes and enzyme producing bacteria that would degrade and digest this raw meat.  However, after the advent of fire, we didn't really need this sort of organ anymore.  Most mammals, especially predators, have this organ and it is much larger.  We are an offshoot of them so we have the same evolutionary beginnings, but now we have a shriveled vestigial organ that if ruptured, will release toxic bacteria and enzymes in our body causing sepsis and peritonitis.

Like the glowing asians, the appendix is another representation of where we came from and how we have evolved even in the last million years.

What's Next?
So with these two examples, hopefully you can see how we have evolved since we first took the Homo Sapien form.  However, this does not mean that we have stopped.  Just because we are the dominant species on this planet and are self-aware  does not mean that we are above evolution.  But what kind of evolution can we expect?  A third eye?  A 6th finger?

A friend of mine told me that you can't determine the direction of evolution but you can determine the velocity.  Wow, that is a tough statement to understand.  By "direction" he meant that we cannot see where we are headed as a species because we can't predict the future.  We only have hind sight.  By "velocity", he meant how fast human beings are evolving which is directly related to the death rate.  If a lot of people are dying, then nature is selecting one phenotype over another.  In the ice ages, intelligent man was favored because he could withstand the cold.  Brute strength meant nothing, all that mattered was your ability to keep warm.  However, with modern medicine, a lot of people are surviving to pass on their genes.  Diabetics, cancer patients, congenital heart disease, all these things are carried on, despite the fact that in the wilderness, you would not have made it.  The moral issue here is too much for me to discuss but I will say that because people are all surviving more, evolution carries a different sort of face, social evolution.

Lets take a look at western culture.  There is selective pressure out there and I think it favors the "improvement" of modern man.  Lets take monogamy for example.  A lot of people out there (mainly males) will talk about how marriage goes against nature because we were made to have multiple partners and what not.  That is a very narrow minded view of human beings because we are not done evolving.   With more and more social pressure to get married and more and more financial pressure to not get divorced, there is selective pressure for monogamy.  There may be a lot of "stupid people breeding" but I think with the incentive to go to college and the acceleration of world wide economics, surviving in this world will increasingly depend on your intelligence.

With that in mind, those people that have the ability to remain married and lead more or less normal lifestyles with a few kids that grow up to do the same, we as human beings can evolve. We can potentially shed our animalistic roots and be capable of more sophisticated male/female interaction and progress as a species.

Another element in modern social evolution that I think is interesting is the definition of evolution itself.  The initial definition has to do with phrases like "survival of the fittest" and "only the strong survive".  This type of evolution favored the jocks and the nerds would never get laid.  However, with ideas like those developed by Nobel Prize Winner John Nash, the best course of action is no longer the bold capitalistic competitive initiative.  Things like the Nash Equilibrium teach us that it is sometimes more important to take other people's incentives into consideration because a decision based on more than one perspective is usually better than only one.  We now live in a world where winning and losing does not articulate our reality well enough.  The US and China are at odds with each other politically right now, but economically, a war would hurt both parties.  We now need to look at things a little more carefully.

Ok blah blah blah, what do I mean?  Now, things like strength and size are out shined by things like judgement, loyalty and intelligence.  The ability to cooperate and spread benefit around matters more than winning and losing.  Take a movie like Dr. Strangelove.  A dark comedy, but it articulates why winning is not good for anybody.  In nuclear war you have MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction.  Both parties are better off not competing but cooperating.  We as a populace should lean away from direct competition and more towards mutually beneficial circumstances.  This idea can be applied to everything from world wide economic theory to politics to male/female relationships.  I already mentioned the China/US example (economics) but with things like gay marriage and abortion, a political view point is better suited with cooperative legislation as opposed to who is right or wrong.  Same with boy friends and girl friends.  In relationships, power seems to be the coveted prize but sometimes winning an argument is less important than seeing the far reaching implications of competition.  This is where things like picking your battles and understanding other people's perspectives becomes important.  

Communication between couples, nations and businesses is better than competition and with this sort of mind set, cooperation can occur and we as a people can evolve beyond our current survival of the fittest mentality.  It has worked for us to get this far, but as our society evolves so must our ability to understand and utilize it.

just my thoughts

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