Evolution and its Encumbrances

Red feathered, yellow footed and beaked, Ruben was not an unusual-looking rooster nor was he set off in any other way from other cocks.  But that he was my first rooster in charge of my first flock, gave him meaning to me.  Proud, I came to understand, was Ruben—and over the months, I noted that his preference for Juliet and only Juliet, set him apart from other birds I later came to know.  Inseparable they were—from coop rung at night, to field grazing during daylight hours, the two were lovers, friends, and where one was, so the other was to be found.

Birds’ brains we are told, are pea-size—and of little matter.  Emotions and feelings, obviously lacking.  Otherwise, how could a human population house birds in the deplorable conditions where beaks and wings are clipped, in cages holding them tightly squeezed and where daylight and movement are absent?

Howard Zinn, author, historian, playwright, social activist and Boston University professor, told us that what a government will do to a country abroad, it will soon do to its own people.  Extrapolating from this, we might wonder how the current corporate US government manages to fool its own people into similarly deplorable living conditions where food, air and water are contaminated with toxic shortcuts for corporate profit--dulling our minds and ultimately allowing our government access to our own choice for freedom. 

The domestication of our fowl came through man’s evolutionary shift from nomadic to agricultural based living. As we might suspect, from Zinn's perspective, our own ultimate fate is clearly presented to us in our animal’s quality of life.  How is it possible for the “smartest” species to be diminished so greatly and that we do not see it upon us?

Kat

2-29-16