Assuming it were logistically and practically possible, it would certainly seem appropriate, to establish a long overdue special thanksgiving holiday, on an international basis, celebrating the generous and invaluable gifts to mankind by evolutionary Nature. Principal among the many invaluable grants, of course, were, an advanced brain, the ability to walk upright, and the utilitarian, and marvelous, opposable thumb. The latter made grasping and holding (prehensile) possible, thus enabling the making of tools and weapons, and ultimately, the construction of human societies.
Mankind appears to be ungraciously unmindful, of these priceless evolutionary gifts, except on the occurrence of illness or injury, such as glaucoma or a bone fracture, at which time man is reminded and made keenly aware of the relevant (in)capability. As an illustration, most humans do not take conscious notice of the existence and utility of their (unique) opposable thumb, except when hitchhiking, indicating a positive or negative inclination, or in observing the public expression of an umpire’s negative decision, at the baseball stadium.
We are told that during the evolutionary process, man developed his prehensile capability, after the development of his ability to walk upright, since brachiation, thereafter, became no longer necessary. In any case, it is immutably the case, that the organization and construction of human society, everywhere on the planet, would not have been possible, without this marvelous capability.
Yet, as appears, many fortuitous blessings come with a cost. In this case, the cost of this precious and indispensably necessary manipulative thumb, has now become, regrettably, exorbitant. The unfortunate and unreasonably high invoice seems to have first been incurred and submitted in recent years, with such impact, as to seriously (perhaps, permanently) impair natural human interactive communication, the latter constituting, inarguably, the very lifeblood, of human society.
One has only to casually observe any crowded street scene, the many visitors at a public park, at any movie theater lobby, public place of assembly, or public means of transportation, to observe the occult-like, eerie fact, that most humans are looking, abnormally downward, instead of straight ahead, or at each other; simultaneously manifesting a rapidly moving, manipulative thumb, tracing irregular patterns on a rather small appliance, held firmly in the convenient hand. Few people, these days, seem to speak to each other, wave, or call out to others. The present, gothic street scene, seems relatively quiet, unnaturally devoid of other than routine traffic sounds, and the occasional drone of an airplane. We find this odd, ominous and personally unsettling.
Humans evolved, fortuitously, equipped with a brain and the necessary equipment to rationally communicate; to speak to each other and timely respond, utilizing a societally developed phenomenon, called language. But the gift of natural, interactive speech, consisting of the spontaneous exchange of spoken words has, of late, it seems, been replaced, with the popularly preferred, transmission of electronic, data-like symbols. Gone is the assurance of the familiar voice, gone is the timely and meaningful response; and in exchange, cold and impersonal, computerized, data-like transmissions.
One has merely to observe the vast multitudes of the species, homo sapiens, bearing hand held “smart phones,” frenetically drumming away at e- messages, or employing (misusing) the marvelous evolutionary gift of the opposable thumb, “ texting,” at Indianapolis Raceway speeds, (not knowing when, or if, a response will be forthcoming and if so, to appear in computerized text, in their miniscule phone window), to confidently deduce the empirical and rational conclusion, that this was not nature’s plan; in generously granting to us, through the evolutionary process, the capacity for advanced reason and the societally vital, and creative, opposing thumb. The unnatural, unforeseen use of these magnificent gifts to homo sapiens, can be seen to amount to a disgraceful blasphemy against the evolutionary process and design of anthropological evolution, itself.
We may, conceivably, be outliers, but we are disappointed and embarrassed by man’s thoughtless misuse and ungrateful response, to the vast cornucopia of advantages and generous gifts afforded to him, by the planet’s Natural Evolution.
Observably and sadly, such profound ingratitude appears to be logically consistent, with the ineffective and hapless response of mankind, to the dangers of scientifically proven planetary climate change.
-p.
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