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from Learning to be Stupid in the Culture of Cash:
The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote that, in the rapacity that the industrial revolution created, people first surrendered their minds or the capacity to reason, then their hearts or the capacity to empathize, until all that was left of the original human equipment was the senses or their selfish demands for gratification. At that point, humans entered the stage of market commodities and market consumers -- one more thing in the commercial landscape. Without minds or hearts, they are instrumentalized to buy whatever deadens their clamoring and frightened senses -- official lies, immoral wars, Barbies, and bankrupt educations.
contrast that with this: Human Brains Are Getting Larger, More Complex, Scientists Say
Scientists studying two genes that regulate brain size, Microcephalin and ASPM, found groups of variants, known as haplogroups, that emerged about 37,000 years ago and 5,800 years ago, according to the papers published yesterday in Science. Anatomically modern humans evolved about 200,000 years ago.
``Our studies indicate that the trend that is the defining characteristic of human evolution -- the growth of brain size and complexity -- is likely still going on,'' Bruce Lahn, lead researcher for both papers, said in an accompanying statement. ``If our species survives for another million years or so, I would imagine that the brain by then would show significant structural differences from the human brain of today.''
blend this with The Joy of Micropamphleting, serve chilled
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