Tag: evolution

An Economists Take On Viruses

Hamar WilliamsLeave a comment

This is a podcast piece. I’m not always great at writing about the podcasts I listen to because usually I listen to them early in the morning on my bread runs and while I’m enjoying them and taking in the information, it’s also early and I’m tired. I forget details. I’m also usually a little lazy to re-listen. If I was really serious about making this blog some kind of success in top quality output I would take the time but as is my usual complaint recently, I’m rather tired. I did listen to the first five minutes of it again though, and it’s only half an hour but I just can’t be bothered tonight. Maybe tomorrow as it is worth listening with a clear head. Anyway enough of that uninspiring intro.

The podcast is from The Economist and it discusses viruses. Not in a fearful way discussing how bad and scary they are, although the dangers are brought up of course, but almost in awe of how powerful and important they are. They start out by telling you there are more viruses out there than there are grains of sand on Copacabana Beach in Brazil. I remember that detail because I’ve just heard it. Everything else though is fuzzy morning memory. They discuss viruses not as destroyers but as implementers of evolution. We are who we are now because of the viruses we have experienced in our evolution. When we bred with Neanderthals we gained some bad genetics, or something like that, but also we gained the antibodies they had apparently which saved us. Maybe saved is a bit strong, but they said something along those lines. Apparently there is an idea that our RNA – I don’t really know what that is – changed into DNA because of exposure to viruses. That’s the molecular structure of life. No small thing. Viruses are life forms and they were there at the beginning. I will listen to it again tomorrow because I finished the episode being quite in awe of the power of viruses and I want to remember why. Certainly contemporary discussion, especially at the moment, paint them in only a bad light but evidently that is not entirely fair.

All of this makes me think then about this current virus. An obvious link to make. It goes without saying that we are going to try to protect ourselves from such things but what does that mean for us as a species. Are we at this point in our evolution because some of our ancestors managed to survive certain virus and somehow our species were stronger and healthier as a result. I know the obvious link to Darwin, survival of the fittest and also the political rhetoric of such talk, but somehow when discussing virus it seems different. On the other hand look at this Covid virus, it seems to be taking down seemingly healthy people and there are some inexplicable examples of those who got ill and those who despite obvious dangers such as age or pre-existing illness survived without complications. Maybe this virus is rooting out some kind of deficiency which we’re unaware of. Pragmatically, is that a good thing for us as a species? Maybe it is until you think of your loved ones and human pragmatism is quickly forgotten about. On the other hand, what about all the great minds who could have furthered us as a species – found a solution to climate change for example – but are killed by a virus. The potential known and unknown of evolutionary development. It’s hard to argue against the mind that prevents climate change who also needs a vaccine or simple medicine to make it happen though. I’m moving into an idea I’ve long pondered without much coherence and which would probably be worth a piece on it’s own. I’ll leave it there for now. There’s already enough incoherence here already.

The point was though that this is a link to an incredibly interesting and informative podcast on an entirely relevant and contemporary issue. It looks at viruses without the fear. We can all use a little more of that in a little more of everything I suspect.

Strange Times

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We’re living in strange times. It’s Thursday today if anyones curious I discovered this earlier, I lost a day, somehow it isn’t Wednesday. Isn’t it great when we realise how little the structure of the week matters and how it isn’t actually real. Once Sunday needed to exist so we could all go to church and pretend we liked God, or use Sunday to rest from the drudgery of our failed work life balance. If God can rest then so can you. Then it appeared God developed a drinking habit because we all started needing it for enduring hangovers.

Some disgusting and healthy members of society of course love posing for photos with their dogs on hills but thankfully these freaks seem to keep to themselves whenever possible. Especially now the Police drones are after them, not to mention those machines they use to film them from the air. Now well, who knows, currently Sunday doesn’t really exist unless we take Don’t Call The Midwife or Dr Who seriously and I have no idea whether they’re even on anymore. I doubt anyone does now that we have tigers and murderers online. These days it’s anything and everything whenever we feel in the mood, porn at the drop of a hat.

And no football of course. Clubs, organisations and fans all trying to juggle the moral dilemma of how they can get the entertainment they want even though it will be like a shit training match in an empty stadium. One which must be shown as nobody wants to repay the billion pounds the sports channels pay to prop up the footballers lifestyles. Don’t forget social distancing. Two metres at all times. Gives a new meaning to contact sport.

Seventy-one year Prince Charles has recovered in a few days from his bout of the virus. It appears that while healthy twenty year old are keeling over, the old reptilian blood is still pumping. If madness, syphilis and inbreeding doesn’t take them down, you bet a little cough won’t even register. Doesn’t say much for his relationship with his wife Camilla though if she didn’t test positive. That or it doesn’t say much for this virus. I still fully admit to being completely confused by everything that is going on.

I have a healthy instinct to not trust the actions of my government or the bellowing of the media but people are dying. I don’t know how old they are because unless you’re young they don’t seem to report or give any kind of average age. For perspective people are still dying more from alcohol related illnesses each day but they insist the bottle shops are ‘essential’ and even more again are dying from smoking related illnesses but this is still highly legal. Let’s not even start on suicides, and don’t even dare mention the probable increase in suicides when people realise they have no future now that their businesses won’t stay open and they can’t feed their kids on £94 per week let alone pay off their toilet roll debts. But then the figures would be much worse if we didn’t have a lockdown and it has most likely stemmed the spread of the virus to a degree. I just don’t know anything. Everything is unknown right now. What an interesting moment in our evolutionary existence.

It is good to see the government admit after ten years of saying cuts are the only solution to saving the economy and society that no actually spending billions we don’t have apparently is instead. And don’t forget to clap your local nurse who you actively voted against by voting in this shower of incompetent, corrupt and dithering shite last December. Yes you fuckwit, you’re a hypocrite and you’re stupid. But anyway as I said strange times.

Historical Revisionism

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Revisionism in history is nothing new. From the dawn of record keeping people have been telling the stories of the past and re-telling them with their own unique take. From the days of the oral tradition with the traveling bards to the father of western historians Herodotus, we have simply had to take what was recording. In modern times we are able to revise this history, and this is not to say that history was never changed in the past, but with the development of technology in the last few hundred years the stories of the past have been recorded with an increased frequency. Prior to this events could be recorded and the re-recorded depending on the necessities of whoever the new status quo was within society. In modern times exactly the same happens but with the advent of first the printing press and then it’s contemporary equivalent the internet, the ability to hide events from the populace has grown increasingly difficult. The existence of a compliant media propaganda machine and an education system selective in it’s teachings still do much of the work of creating an ignorant populace but with technology evolving at ever faster rates it will be interesting to see what course establishment counter measures take.

China is an example of one way of dealing with the spread of information with certain sites blocked, disruptive opinions deleted and a general hardline approach to the spread of information. In the west we have the alternative approach, allow people access to information but discredit it as crackpot, hide it away from search engines and ultimately take a more distracting approach. It is hard to imagine which one will turn out the more successful. History has shown us you can’t keep people oppressed indefinitely but also they’ll eventually stop being distracted by the magic trick. Do they both then add certain aspect of each others approach, well only time will tell.

The point of this though was not to get into a piece on internet freedoms, but instead write about the manipulation and revisionism of certain characters within our own history. I previously wrote a piece on the myth of the barefoot doctor Li Shizhen, an example of China’s revisionism, and we have done the same with figures from our own past like Winston Churchill; responsible for leading the country against the Nazi’s on one hand and directly responsible for the death of three million people in the Bengal famine with the other. Can you guess which part of his life we are taught in school?

Today I listened to a very interesting podcast on Emmeline Pankhurst. It is undeniable that she was responsible for one of the greatest social changes in this country since the industrial revolution. Through her direct action, determination and network of followers women received the vote, some of the things they pulled off during the struggle were incredible and I’m in awe. However what is not always taught is that she was a classist. Throughout this struggle she wasn’t actually fighting for universal suffrage as is taught about her in modern times. Her intentions were never to get working class women the vote as she believed they were better being led by those above them in society. Arguably she was only ever fighting to get the vote for women of her social standing and above. She actively fought against the spread of communism which was in those days more about the emancipation of the workers than the spread of Soviet authoritarianism. When she moved to Canada in later life she then fought against ‘non-white immigration’ before returning to Britain, joining the Conservative Party and standing for them as an MP much to the horror of her daughters.

That is not to say her achievements are unworthy and she did some great things which should be recorded and educated but it is important not to ignore the less savoury, or the parts which don’t fit the idealised narrative. With technology and the spread of information, as well as misinformation only increasing, it may just be time to redevelop a little trust back between society and those directing it. If not we can only envisage the inevitable suffragette style movement to follow. People are fallible, get over it.