People Change

I’ve always considered myself an astute observer of the human condition since I can first remember. As I’m sure most people can recall, watching our parent(s) is the beginning of fashioning our curiosity about people in general. That is to say, I’ve always found myself wondering exactly what makes people tick. I guess you could say that is why I have always found myself attracted to the social sciences. Subjects such as history, political science, psychology, sociology, anthropology, etc… always enthralled me in school and still do for that matter. I am never one to assume much about people I meet (until I get to know them), as these previously listed social sciences have told me that there is always a reason behind why people are the way they are.

Whenever I meet someone new, I’m always inclined to make conversation about their present, past, and future moments in their lives. I have noticed that people are always inclined to speak of their families, friends, relationships, pets, what they wish to become, or even what they think of our current leaders (if they even know). By creating a synthesized time line in my mind, I can construct a general “inner picture” of that person. I do it because I want to know if that person is to be of long term “value” to me, i.e. if they are stimulating. This is just my method for attempting to decipher people; we all have a method, we just don’t think about it. Of course, there is always much more to be told about any individual, which obviously takes a longer commitment to that person if I am to find out if my generalized time line is accurate.

The beauty of human society is that it facilitates our social evolution. My 88 year old grandmother is always telling me how amazed she is how the world has evolved into what it is today. The prior generation’s societal experiences are incomprehensible to most of us, including myself. I cannot fathom myself in say, 1930 with my current accumulation of experiences. I wouldn’t fit in if I tried. If you happen to be reading, you are probably wondering what the point of all this rant is? I’m glad you asked.

If you look back at what has been written thus far, you will see that this rant has evolved into something generalized and vague into this point: Life is about evolution. I’m not talking about Darwinism evolution (biological), but the evolution of the individual. We all change in that sense. You could say that everyday our perceptions of the world change, whether we meet a new person or even go to work. The common saying goes that we learn something new everyday unless we are dead. The brain is an awesome sponge for this purpose. People change.

Is It Our Fault or Is It Their Time?

For many observers, there is a conservation crisis on the Australian island of Tasmania. Many are familiar with the Tasmanian devil, a small, yet fierce meat eating marsupial that has resided on the island for thousands of years. Fossil records indicate that the devil resided on the actual continent of Australia up to 600 years ago. But the rise of dingo (a wild dog) populations led to the eventual extinction of the creature on the continent. Trouble is that we (humans) brought the dingo to Australia in the first place, hence disturbing the natural ecological balance.

As of now, there are only 80,000 devils remaining on the island. That doesn’t sound too bad, right? Look at it this way, as of 1990 there were over 140,000 devils on the island; that is almost half of the population gone in less than two decades. What is causing the devil to die off? The cause is a large outbreak of tumors, more specifically facial tumors that lead to the eventual starvation and death of the creature. Scientists discovered that due to a lack of genetic diversity, the remaining devils develop tumors because their systems do not have the ability to ward off infection from biting which is rather common amongst the devil.

In short, the mechanism that most creatures have that short out tumors before they start to grow is absent in the devil. This dilemma is comparable to per say primates that inbreed. A prime example would be English monarchs of the past centuries. If you recall, they would only have kids within the family, which would lead to genetic conditions and their eventual deaths. This is the case for the devils. Because they are so genetically similar, their immune systems have mutated, which makes them prime candidates for disease.

Many would argue that this is the natural cycle of life; Darwinism, survival of the fittest. If a creature cannot adapt, it is not meant to survive; a new creature will take the extinct one’s place. But as mentioned above, their very survival has been put in jeopardy by our actions of the past. We brought the wild dog to Australia, which in turn forced the devil the find refuge in an isolated environment. So the question still remains; did we do it? Or is it their time?