Trust

We carry out the responsibilities entrusted to us and trust in the return of the gesture. Though we know not from where it will come, we give freely of ourselves, and learn grace in order to be filled again. This bond can only be loosened by our pulling away, and so we hold tight to it.

On Ed Wilson...

Today I watched a PBS documentary called "Lord of the Ants" about the etymologist who spent much of his life studying and cataloging ant species and officially originated the term sociobiology, which arguably emerged as a way to describe and explain the altruistic and cooperative behaviors throughout the natural world that seem at odds with a strictly competitive darwinian model. It is worth mentioning (at the risk of a massive tangent) that the spell check function would have me capitalize an adjective derived from the proper noun, Darwin, whereas a word like God gets no such attention. It is important to capitalize on Darwin It is important to always capitalize any and all words derived from the names of those on whom we depend for unraveling the mysteries of this world to us. We who have yet to circumnavigate the globe in search of natures unifying principles, who are not blessed with super-human powers of deduction, who have not attained the heights from which the whole world is plainly visible, must receive these teachings from those with the authority to disseminate knowledge in the safety and sterility of the classroom. If we happen to step outside into the blinding light of day and see something at odds with the dusty texts and colored diagrams and fluorescent-lit models... does it catch our attention? It had better.
  The cutthroat competition driving separation in the lower castes and legitimizing domination in the higher castes of civilization depends, in part, on the logical fallacy of appealing to nature, or nature as interpreted by Charles Darwin. Mr. Wilson drew considerable attention to himself not just by suggesting that there exist in nature genetic propensities for cooperation and altruism, which starts to turn the idea of a "savage wild" on its end just by itself, but by including the human species in his original examination.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKbj3ZDmvdU&feature=player_embedded


  Around 28:00 we start to get into some serious shit, so serious and relevant (to now) that even the narrators tone changes markedly from this point on.. in case you don't want to watch it, here is what Ed himself has to say about his arguing that all animal behavior, including that of humans, is the product of heredity, environmental stimuli, and past experiences:

"What I didn't realize at the time was that this is a no-no because most of the social scientists had already come to an agreement; incorrect, as it turns out, that the human brain is a blank slate. That human behavior (including social behavior) is determined by the accidents of cultural evolution and by learning alone, and that there was no such thing, for the most part, as human nature, that instincts do not exist except in the most basic, primitive manner, and that the human brain is absolutely unique in this respect... that was the dogma."

  Now, to offend sociologists is one thing.. you might get lumped into some blanket-term for the kind of person you must be based on the poor schooling you had or whatever, but the backlash (just watch the video.... please?) and preemptive focus-grab points to a much deeper insult. So deep, in fact that even the editing of the video needed to be carefully set up to go straight from this quote (with no time to reflect on what it may mean) to the bottom of a very slippery slope.

"Back in the 70s, the received wisdom was that human behavior was a product of how we were reared, a purely environmental phenomenon. To suggest that it was somehow genetically programmed was heresy. Some of the fiercest criticism came from Ed Wilson's own department at Harvard. Richard Lewontin, a leading evolutionary biologist, was one of several influential scientists who wrote a highly critical letter to the New York Review of Books. They feared, Wilson's ideas might set the stage for a new kind of eugenics movement. After all, if bad behavior were a result of bad genes, then perhaps people might argue for cleansing the gene pool."

There are, in fact, multiple tactics employed during the 40 seconds it takes to say the above which unfortunately take much longer to unravel in text. First is the use of "back in the 70's, the received wisdom," which for those who might have intuitively grasped the issue right away, has a reassuring effect... working to keep the narrator 'on our side' by assuring us that we aren't the first to notice something, and even if we were, that this thing we all noticed happened in the past; and that in any case the 'wisdom' was received as all wisdom is, from somewhere outside the people thinking these things. Interestingly, this also seems to be the first time in the documentary where the narrator is heavily emphasizing certain words, such as those italicized above. This puts the narrator, whom we now (if we didn't already) trust, on the same side as the influential scientist he is introducing. To introduce a speaker as "influential" serves to add to their ability to influence, at least for some parts of the audience. On top of all of this, the video accompaniment is doing the standard 'zoom in on key words' thing (presumably from the article mentioned) where the words quickly zoomed in on include "privileges for certain... class, race, or sex" "Xenophobia" and "Nazi's."

Very scary stuff, eh? Nobody likes those terms, and there is so much emotion attached to them. Such mobilization of emotional energy is reminiscent of other times in our lives when we are face to face with complex issues that threaten to be revealed by just the slightest amount of thinking.

||As an aside, this particular stream of consciousness has been interrupted so many times and from so many different vectors that the author cannot help but question where his logic is headed, and thus will proceed more cautiously||

After hearing that bit, I became fixated upon the idea that the tabula rasa viewpoint on human beings, necessary to the establishment, was about to come under threat and that a counter-attack had to be preempted before Ed stumbled upon the connection. It is obvious at this moment, though, that I could never write or explain fast enough to combat the immense organization and intelligence seemingly conspiring to keep me from voicing (and him from even realizing) this view. I suppose that could mean a lot of things, but one of them is that I am way off base. The other is that the control of information is much further advanced than I can currently fathom. Perhaps neither. Perhaps both.

My viewpoint is actually somewhere else in all of this. I disagree with the mechanistic darwinian viewpoint taken as word by both Wilson and his colleagues as a process for dumb animals to adopt behaviors. In the case of humans, I feel that there are some tendencies transmitted either genetically or karmically to new-born babies. Any mother can confirm this. I also think that the idea of a human as a blank slate is a very sensitive subject for some who rely on this for molding minds. The idea is, if the day comes where every last square foot of Earth has been molded in some way by human hands, those born into a completely artificial environment will never think twice about it, or, more importantly, those who created it. As someone who grew up in a manufactured suburb, I am deeply thankful for our many family outings to the mountains, beyond the reach of human pride. I feel though, that even without those experiences, something deep inside me would never accept the shopping malls and logical fallacies and manipulations of various types that accompany life in this nation. This is where I 'sort of' agree with Wilson: that something inside us remembers, and will always remember.

It is the severity of the reaction to his work that gives me pause. Would this really be used for justifying eugenics? Is Wilson a strict determinist, or is he not that narrow-minded? The truth is that learning occurs by observation of and interaction with our environment, whether that environment was shaped by humans or nature. That there is a such a clear distinction between the two shaping forces is indicative in its own right, but that is a topic for another discussion altogether.  My concern is that examples of the superior organizational structures, synergetic systems, cooperative alliances, and surplus redistributions found all over nature are getting sidelined almost to the point where is seems intentional. Where to point the blame-stick is beyond me, but something in this world seems to hinge heavily on your and my belief that humans can be shaped for any purpose, adapted to any environment, and uses that belief to mobilize 100% confidence in the popular methods of selective information distribution to a populace which keeps proving it true, generation after generation. 

Probably.

these are words describing a photograph of a wall displaying a painting of a fox

To Do: Write Blog Entry

Today I found myself in somewhat of a state of overwhelm spending a minute here, a minute there on a myriad of half-formed tasks/ideas on and potentially on my plate. A friend told me to make a to-do list and eventually I did, or started to... and started checking off as I went as well. Winternship at Woodbine? No, but at least I made the call and cleared one blockage. French drain from the side of the house into the back yard/alley? Started. It is going to be a rather labor intensive project, but this is ok as I am getting half off my rent for it. Now to juggle my time between making these virtual dollars and the actual dollars that will pay the remaining half. I also claimed responsibility for creating the base map for the outside of the GrowHaus, which I am working on in between these very sentences.

The GrowHaus is an indoor farm, marketplace and educational center in Denver's Elyria-Swansea neighborhood. Their (our?) goal is to provide healthy, affordable food for the surrounding community and raise awareness about issues of food justice and sustainability. A small group has been given license to work with the community to develop the north side into something which is both desired by the community and reflects the ethos and goings on inside the GrowHaus. There are some initial ideas which we are collectively choosing not to get too exited about, including community plots, neighborhood compost bins, and permaculture demonstration areas. These of course hinge on community interest, local participation and not least of all: dedication to the point of eventual self-governance. With fall setting in, there is a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation developing.. but the general consensus is to prepare for at least a few hoped-for eventualities on paper and to be ready to start sheet mulching as soon as enough people say "heck yeah we want community plots!"

I have a few computer-based rituals which I have found it rather hard to break out of in the recent past. Check for blog updates on a few of my old stand-by's, see if anything cool is up on Vimeo, FB, email, other email, new anime on tuesdays and thursdays.... repeat. If I'm not pulling anything fresh I might check Craigslist for free stuff or go through the vast list of "see later" bookmarks or if I'm in the mood maybe fire up Cubase or Chainer and plink away at the black-and-whites. Where, then, is that album that could have been done 10 times by now?

At some point in this evening I felt something start to shift as I plunked away the the keys (alphabetical). I started to feel comfortable with this similar, yet slightly more productive computer interaction. Instead of stream-of-consciousness-surfing 10 tabs of loosely-related threads (none related to me, even loosely), I was creating a map for a REAL PROJECT, learning a new software tool that will be crucial later on, occasionally tabbing over to start to solidify a possible plan for next year, and telling you all about it. I feel like I have to multitask, or at least keep multiple tasks open at the same time so that I can always procrastinate more than I don't. The realization is that I am just as comfortable getting something immediately relevant done as I am spinning off into inter-space. The gravity of that realization is, of course, more powerful than I can express to you who have not had to witness the paralysis of overwhelm for so long, and certainly not from this perspective.

Will you look at that? I just came full-circle. Wish me luck... or perhaps focus.

"A Blessing on this Endeavor...

....may it burn wisdom into your senses and light up the inner strength that might just be there, yet still cast shadows of doubt across your own paths and your own myths." -Ralph Steadman