Darwin II
![Evolution is obviously not fair. The image above [1] is an excerpt from an evolutionary ladder, showing the deviations from an originating species. The theory itself depicts a really dog eat dog world - where every species fends for itself on a completely partial and dangerous plain. But what are the implication of evolution applied to our modern society? Will our species become, as Kansas says...
“Dust in the wind
All we are is dust in the wind” [2]
Well, according to Darwin probably so. Millions of years from now, perhaps humanity will not exist at all. Perhaps we will develop into “dust in the wind.”
[3] An image of the human dust in the wind.
Nothing describes the human evolutionary predicament better than Tennyson’s “In Memoriam”
“Who loved, who suffered countless ills
Who battled for the True, the Just
Be blown about the desert dust,
Or sealed within the iron hills?” [4]
The human condition is undoubtedly a complex and intricate one. As far as we are concerned our lives are filled with loving and suffering and great trials and tribulations that are of such an important nature that it’s hard not to try to immortalize them in lyric and language. However, what Tennyson is saying here is that it’s all for naught. We may crusade for our subjective morality and find ourselves to be oh so important on the evolutionary ladder, but in reality, we’re all just blown around like the dust in the wind, and will end up becoming fossils in the side of a mountain someday. Creepy, huh?
[1] http://chnm.gmu.edu/resources/essays/images/EvolutionIntelligentDesignClimateChange/evolution1.jpg
[2] Kansas. “Dust in the Wind.” from “E 375L Course Packet” Ed. Jerome Bump. Jenn’s: Austin, TX 2007. p. 386.
[3] http://images.elfwood.com/art/n/a/naraoia/dustinthewind_ew.jpg
[4] Tennyson, Alfred Lloyd. “In Memoriam.” from “E 375L Course Packet.” Ed. Jerome Bump. Jenn’s: Austin, TX 2007. p. 386.](Darwin%20II%20DB_files/shapeimage_2.png)
