Some comments from a deleted video......

The End of Natural Selection

We're all familiar with the concept of natural selection. You know, the idea that over time the members of a species who have certain traits which are more conducive to survival will inevitably have a better likelihood of reproducing, thus weeding undesireable traits out of the gene pool. This begs the question, does natural selection apply at all to the modern human race? I mean, it's not like you have to be especially strong or clever to survive as a human nowadays, and especially not in a prosperous country such as America. Withstanding infantile death, freak accidents, and suicide, pretty much everyone in America lives. It doesn't take a whole lot more to have children either. It's not like the strikingly good looking or intelligent people really have any more offspring than anybody else, if anything, I'd say that stupid, undesireable people seem to breed quite a bit more easily than anybody else. So where I am I going with this? Am I suggesting that we begin having fights to the death, or for the physically weak but mentally apt, we have academic decathlons that end with the losers being nuetered so as not to pollute the rest of the species with their sub-superior range IQ's? No! Not at all, in fact, I'm going to suggest quite the opposite. (This is all my own ignoramic speculation and is not to be taken as serious scientific theory) My guess is that the human race has evolved to the point of being such an adaptable, biologically valid species, that we no longer have a need for weeding any traits completely out of the pool and that such genetic variation is rather desireable. I mean, look at our economic culture today. There are so many different jobs out there that need to be filled by people with peculiar aptitudes that it's easy to see why such a broad range of genetics is desireable. People who aren't particularly talented in anything are just as important, for if the world was only populated with, let's say, geniuses, then no one would be happy and content to fill the more menial labor positions in society. I'm not saying that necessarily everyone ends up in a field that they're well suited for or that you don't have people working menial labor jobs who are talented and capable of something better, but I think you get the general idea. It would be interesting to hear what the experts in evolutionary biology have to say about this topic..... by the way, I think that this is a sub standard blog entry for me and if you feel the same about it you can blame my cousin Jane, who always gets on my case about updating. Her email is jane.fulton@gmail.com, please be sure to send all complaints to her. (maniacal laugh, hahaha... )

A comment from my pal Chuck Dawson...

"Nice guys finish last": True or False?

I was thinking of calling this entry "Being a guy sucks", but I'm sure there's equal drawbacks to femalehood, so I opted for the above title instead......... Having said that, manhood isn't all it's cracked up to be sometimes. As a guy, there's this paradigm you're expected to live up to, and in our modern era, it's gotten even more stringent. As a man, you're expected to be confident but not cocky, tough but yet somehow sensitive at the same time, nice, but not tooooo goddamn nice, because "nice guys finish last"! (God, I hate that fucking quip) It's like you're supposed to be some kind of suped up John Wayne, as if you're supposed to give off the vibe of being the kind of guy who just acts like a jerk but really is a nice guy underneath the jerk exterior. Well, sometiemes I get pretty damn tired of acting like that, and I just want to act like....... a nice guy. As for the old addage that girls only go for assholes, I have to say that I think it's a half truth. The truth in it lies in the fact that a guy who qualifies as an asshole usually gives off a more confident aura than a guy who is just way too nice, and is nice because he secretly loathes himself and has an unhealthy need to be liked by absolutely everyone around him (this used to be me). Girls don't really go for assholes, they go for confidence, and I can't really blame them. Who want's to be with someone who mopes around all the time and hates themselves?
The mistake our culture makes (in my humble opinion) is that it gives young men the impression that if they don't fit a certain mold, then there's no reason for them to act confident. Like if you're not the typical guy who enjoys working underneath the hood of a car, drinks Bud Light, and never misses a fucking Steeler's game (heaven forbid), then there's no reason for you to go around acting cock-sure. You don't have to be captain of the football team to have confidence, you can be a confident computer geek (computer geeks usually mistake snide obnoxiousness for confidence, but that's another story), or a confident artist, or a confident intellectual scholar. And you don't have to be a jerk either, girls love it when they find nice guys who have asshole-like confidence without the assholeness (the confidence of assholes is usually fake and bloated, anyhow). This brings me to my next point....
For a long time I would tell myself, "You have to be more confident, so girls will like you".... I was missing the goddam point. True confidence is a reward all in it's own, when I have it I feel better about myself and life in general, I feel hopeful and capable, and I don't really care which girls do and don't like me. I can honestly say that today I genuinely feel confident more often than not, though I do have occasional 5 minute fits when I feel kind of.... scared. I allow mysef this, because nothing is worse than getting caught in the viscious cycle of hating yourself for hating yourself. (been there, done that).....
that's all