Arsenic, Evolution and Idiocracy

Folks were getting excited yesterday about the discovery of a bacteria that has substituted arsenic for phosphorus in Mono Lake out in California. Scientific types were saying that the search for life in the universe has now expanded because we can look for life based on other elements besides our own - or something like that. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention because I was wondering if GFAJ-1 is our Replacement.

Plenty of people say we don't need to worry about the impact of humanity on the environment on account of the Earth takes care of itself. Maybe it's taking care of itself now by eliminating the carbon based life forms and introducing something that will stabilize and enhance the environment. The Earth may take care of itself, but it doesn't necessarily follow that it takes care of humans. Could be that Nature has determined we're too stupid to survive and has taken steps to remedy the situation we've created.

If we're currently poisoning the planet so thoroughly that we're as doomed as dinosaurs, then it makes sense that another life form will evolve to take our place on the planet once we're extinct. If it lives on poison, it can clean up our mess and restore Earth to its natural balance.

Looking at the History of Man in general, and specifically at the current socioeconomic dyanmics of America today where we seem to be fighting the Civil War all over again, and the seeds for the Civil War were embedded in the compromises that were made in order to get a few slave states to sign the damn Constitution in the first place: there's no reason to be optimistic about Humanity.

Humanity has potential and everything as we often heard on Star Trek, but if the "anthem" by Kid Rock was the best original song anyone could produce for the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear - we're fucked for sure.



I understand that this song brought a tear to the eyes of hundreds of thousands of sincere and earnest individuals who thought they were working to bring about social justice at a corporate sponsored event. I'm sure they are all well intentioned, but it's a sad commentary on the target audience when the basic premise of a song Rolling Stone called one of The 5 Most Memorable Musical Moments of the Rally lists everything we cannot hope to change.  Since there's nothing to be done, let's congratulate ourselves for caring and return to regularly scheduled programming.  Consider the chorus:

I can't stop the war
Shelter homeless, feed the poor
I can't walk on water
I can't save the sons and daughters
Well I can't change the world and make things fair
The least I could do
Is care

We have become a nation where caring about other people is an accomplishment worth celebrating.  Given the popularity of Randy Paul the Aqua Buddha whose supporters stomp the heads of little girls they don't like and a fire department that will watch a house burn to the ground over 75 bucks, I suppose caring about people is, in fact, a quality so rare that it must be meticulously cultivated.  Or maybe caring is the quality Comedy Central wants to attach to their brand to separate themselves from Fox News.  If that's the case, Comedy Central better add Intelligence to their demographic profile.  Glenn Beck's maneuvers in fund raising for the US Chamber of Commerce worked because folks send money to prove how much they care - exactly like thousands of Clueless Christians sent money to Tammy Faye and Jim Bakker at The PTL Club.

If Glenn Beck represents the dominant evolutionary trajectory and that trajectory includes Jim and Tammy Faye, we all might as well start learning to like poison.

This whole thing makes me wonder if I shouldn't forget the plan to move Menopausal Stoners World Headquarters to Austin, Texas and head for Canada instead.  I could get a big piece of land and create a refugee camp for Americans who have fled the Idiocracy. We could have as much fun as they did at Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's compound up in Oregon - except I think we should focus on the teachings of Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947).   We might as well follow a bisexual, recreational drug using social critic whom the popular press called, "the most wicked man in the world."