Are WE Smarter than Frogs?

Why worry about frog behavior?

Every major civilization in our history did not believe...

• The Romans never fathomed that they would collapse...
• The Mayans never fathomed that they would collapse...
• The Byzantines never fathomed that they would collapse...
• The Easter Islanders never fathomed that they would collapse...
• The list could go on and on!!!

One of the things that each of those civilizations had in common was that they were "blind-sided" ...caught totally unaware of the pending doom...

...and now...

These people...these civilizations are nothing more than a memory!

Who is to blame?

We'll never really know...

What destroyed them?

We'll never really know...

We can only speculate...

They probably did not know or realize it themselves...

So how can we?

Why should we be any the wiser?

Does it matter?  They are dead and gone...we are alive!

It appears that knowing is no more important than our high school history lessons...YAWN!

If it is good to know...then...

We can ask..."How could something like this happen?"

...and use our "gift of hindsight" to find the answer...

But let me remind you of one of my "epiphanies of the utterly obvious"

History is our greatest teacher...it will repeat itself...until we learn the intended lesson!

The interesting thing is that I believe that the answer to the "How did this happen?" question is not to be found only in our history...the answer is all around us!  Not just in our history...but also in nature...ourselves as individuals, our society!

...AND...

I believe that understanding frogs actually holds the answer!


A Vivid Image!

In 5th grade...My science book described a very interesting and somewhat disturbing animal behavior that, to this day, haunts me!

The book warns the reader "NOT to repeat this research..."

and I can tell you...that we totally complied with that warning after reading the entire section...

I also suggest that you do not do this experiment...just trust it for what it has told us!

The article said that researchers placed a live frog in a beaker of room temperature water...

The frog loved it and sat in perfect bliss...

The researchers then heated the water is slowly...expecting the frog to jump out when the temperature got to a certain level...

Why?

Because frogs actually have a highly developed central nervous system and amazing reaction system...

Researchers hypothesized that the ability of a frog to discriminate was going to be very precise!

Instead...they found that the frog just sat there!

Totally oblivious of the rise in water temperature...

Despite a higher order nervous system...It was clueless!

It simply sat there...until the water became too hot to live in!

and it died!

Stupid frogs!


To Err is Human

After reading that section of the book I was glad that I was not a frog!

Humans are much smarter than that!

OR...Are we?

We have many "higher order" systems supporting us...

As a species these system allow us to be VERY adaptive...

It is one of the greatest human strengths...

I also believe that it is one of our greatest weaknesses...

AND...it will be our demise!

As an individual and as a society...and as a civilization!

AND...as a species!

Why?

Because it is our ability to adapt that makes us no smarter than a frog!

It is our ability to tolerate and adjust that has caused the demise of major civilizations!

and it is causing the demise of ours!



Of Frog-ness and Human-ness...

Biologists once labeled frogs as the "living environmental heath" indicator...

Overall...frogs are sensitive to their environment...such as chemicals and contaminants...

If a frog can live in it...the environment is pretty clean and healthy...

It is interesting though...

Frogs will continue to live in the environment (refusing to leave) until it kills them!

Love canal in the northeast US is a living (DEAD) example!

When you look at it for what frogs really tell us...

Frogs are not a good indicator...

Yet they are an indicator...

Their bottom line is that...If they are not there...it is too late!

Why do they do this?

Frogs are both tolerant and sensitive at the same time...

They are a lot like humans...

They put up with things (tolerate) until it is too late...

Humans are like frogs...

We generally tolerate until we crumble!

Think about it!

As individuals and as a society...we are tolerant and sensitive at the same time!

We will tolerate things that will ultimately lead to our demise...

Allowing things (issues) to accumulate or heat up and then...

"Where did all the people go?"

Are we smarter than frogs?

Having set the stage...

Let's cut to the chase and answer the question...

Are humans smarter than frogs?

The answer...

In a word...

NO!

We are no smarter than frogs!

In fact we have always acted, are acting and will continue to act like frogs...

Maybe even worse...

Frogs are peace loving and don't intentionally hurt the world around them...and seldom hurt one other!

The "vanished civilizations" stand as reminders of just how oblivious and "frog-like" we were, are and will continue to be!

Shame on us!

You would think we would learn...

Yet history repeats itself...Why?  Think about it!

But we can't...

We are no better than frogs!

Frogs may even be smarter than us!

They don't waste time attempting to accumulating riches...

They just sit around...eating bugs...doing what frogs do best and sadly die!

Dumb People!


The "froginess" of Individuals and Society...

We can conclude that as individuals, as a society, as a civilization and a species are no smarter than frogs...

We are sitting in our respective beakers...in our water...

Totally oblivious to the fact that it is heating up all around us...

"It is just another degree or two...no big deal!"...we say to ourselves...or to other frogs around us!

We are oblivious to the realization that the end result is going to be "frog soup!"

This article is not just about "global warming" and the environment...(it could be)...in fact...at this point in our juncture the environment should be the least of our worries...

We have proverbial water heating around us at a ever-accelerating rate...and we have to do something about it!

As individuals...our being oblivious and lacking response to what is contributing to our heated environment...is not only leading us to our personal demises but also to our society's fall!

It won't be long before our species disappears from the face of the earth!

It is sad!

We no longer aspire for higher levels of education...and more class...

Instead...

We tolerate sub-human behaviors like bullying...or disrespect...or just plain nasty talk...or stealing...or lying...

You get the picture!

Hey...you say...all of those actions are driven by the lack of our misaligned respect!

DEAD ON!  But...

People will be people...right?

We are supposed to embrace diversity and tolerate differences!

But this has created a situation not unlike an avalanche!

We fear addressing detrimental issues under the blanket of tolerance called "political correctness..."

Political correctness...

That is like saying criminally lawful!

It is an oxymoron!

I recently heard a religious leader call for the elimination of the "stand your ground" law...saying that "we have to protect our children..."

Isn't that the law that says if someone acts in a way that threatens your life...you have a right to defend yourself...

If we are protecting our children from that law...I think that we are admitting that their behaviors put them on the wrong side of it!

That religious leader must not be thinking...or at least he is not being led by God...in actuality..he is...

Grandstanding...pure and simple...

He just exposed his real motives to the world...

To incite unrest...for the sake of public attention!

So Sad!

I have an answer for his..."protect our children" thing...

If you are a half-decent parent...your children will never be a threat to anyone!

The only people who have to fear that law are those who are aggressive enough with others that they cause fear of bodily harm and death!

I ask...Parents...have you done such a bad job raising your children that you have to lobby to have the law that protects good people from thieves and murderers removed from our books?

If you do not think that you have a problem...

Go and stand at a mall and listen to your children talk...

"I am going to hit you in the face"
"I am going to take you out"
"If she was here I'd kill her"
"he needs to be popped"

and on and on!

We idolize low-level sub-human behavior...

We allow it because we think that it is cool!

It is NOT COOL!...it is a festering wound that is causing our society to heat up...and who will be to blame? 

Those who allow that kind of talk and behavior!

When I was growing up...I remember being at a Montgomery Ward store service desk with my mom...

As we stood in line...a lady "went off" on the service person...

Actually how she behaved was not unlike I observe dozens of times at Wal-Mart today!

The only difference was that while she was ranting...the Manager of the Department called the police and they took her away...

She actually was charged with disturbing the peace!

My community did not tolerate that kind of behavior...

I wish that would happen now!

I truly would love to see those nasty-mouthed people hand-cuffed...and charged with disturbing the peace...

We should seek peace...

Those poor Wal-Mart Customer Service people are not paid enough to have to kind the kind of abuse that they get every day!

These verbal abusers are bullies...I bet their children are too!

They are the kind of people that need to be protected from "stand your ground!"

Our society needs to protect its peace...

But it won't because we have become tolerant of low class, sub-human, disrespectful, "just plain nasty" behavior!

We have allowed fear to control our lives...

The problem isn't that law...it is a lack of respect between individuals...the problem is those people who have to fear that they will be on the wrong side of that law...

Who is to blame for that?

It is us frogs!

We have tolerated those bad behaviors and that has subtly contaminated ourselves and our society...

Our tolerance is a contaminant...

The behavior of our society members is a contaminant...

We are living in a cesspool!

We need to learn to love ourselves and then live by the "Do unto others..." law...

Seriously...if we treated each other with respect...the "stand your ground" law would not be needed...it could be on the books and NEVER exercised...

If we have to protect our children from that law...then the best thing to do is put them in jail before they get killed!

It is sad!

Why is this a issue anyway?

It is simple...

Grandstanding...like that "professed" "man of God"...shows how much like frogs we really are!

The problem is not the law...it is the reason for the law!

Let's stop being like frogs and learn from our history!

That is a simple example of our "frog-ness" but the problem is more than a gun control bill...

...or standing your ground!

We have grown oblivious to one of our greatest gifts...our past!

I was recently told..."be a little more tolerant"  you have to remember our history!

I responded...I do remember our history and that is why I am intolerant...

Those who can't remember the past are frogs!

Our past is a gift...

The cool thing about this gift is that it is gone!

Yet...the fact that we learn from it...and apply those lessons...makes it awesome!

Yet we allow the bad things of the past to contaminate our present!

We bring up issues that are long since dead and gone...

We remind each other of the "bad old - Good old days" and bring it back to life!

It incites the shallow-minded people to action!

It controls the simple thinking masses!

This behavior causes us to relive our pasts over and over...

When we relive our pasts...we have to time to live in our future!

It brings up past wounds that we ourselves never really had!

Our past...like any wounds should be allowed to heal...we may have scars as individuals or a society or even globally...but even scars fade and are forgotten over time!

But let us not forget...and let it be the lesson that history taught us!

Wise people remain aware of the mistakes and injustices of the past...they act on the lessons...over and over and over...and not on what caused us to learn the teacher!

The bottom line....THE PAST IS GONE!  Get over it and let's make today and tomorrow better!

As a person thinks...it is how it will be...

Injustice, hatred, aggression, etc; love and feed upon attention...

Ignore these bad characteristics...and they will starve...and die!

Yet we continue to feed them...

Think about it...

What lives in this world is the sum total of our tolerances and intolerances...

What lives and thrives in our world is what we allow to do so!

Now that I think about it...

We are worse than frogs!

I could go on and on...

But that is not needed...

Our pond is a sacred place...

It is the only one that we have!

Our world is literally and figuratively contaminated...

We are contaminated...
as Individuals
as a Society
as a Civilization
as a Species

Our world is heating up...

If we do not get smart to the change...

We are going to end up like the bygone civilizations...

We'll be that species that used to be here...

We are going to end up like the frogs,,,

We are going to "croak"

Enough Said!

Pura Vida!