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In Praise Of Folly
As democracy carries us toward our end, let’s look at what a truly wonderful system of governance it has been
For a great many people, the primary function of the human brain is to act as ballast to prevent the head from bobbing around as they waddle from sofa to fridge. This is, perhaps surprisingly to those who do attempt thinking on occasion, what nature intended. Evolution is a parsimonious mistress and selection pressures preclude the accumulation of features that insufficiently serve the task of surviving and reproducing. Any living thing has a limited energy budget and so what energy is available must be directed to the most urgent tasks. Eons of selection pressures weed out all non-essential features.
This is why elephants don’t sport useless wings on their backs and why sharkskin isn’t a glorious display of vibrant colors. It’s why behaviors are hardwired to deliver the biggest bang for the energy buck. Lionesses in a pride spend most of their time doing as little as possible, because any unnecessary exertions would reduce the energy they’ll need for the next hunt. Once aloft, an albatross will remain airborne for months because it takes a great deal of energy expenditure for the bird to get into the air but very little for it to remain up there. We humans operate under the same constrictions, and so for…
