On Thu, 11 Apr 1996, James T. Martin wrote:
> At 12:43 PM 4/11/96 -0600, you wrote:
> >Question. I am thinking of writing an article. My current area of
> >inquest is irony as public discourse. This works into a number of
> >issues- especially in terms of Gen-X culture. But I am interested in the
> >"convulsions" pop culture is experiencing between two or more dominant
> >discourses (memes) if you will. The current popularity of Angels,
> >Gargoyles and Vampires speaks of a convulsive 'phasing' between
> >Christian spirituality and new age humanism. My take on this is that
> >irony is a form of culturally practiced masochism and spawns pop artists
> >such as Quentin Terantino (Pulp Fiction was pure genius) and Madonna. I
> >was wondering if you have any thoughts (or sources) on the evolutionary
> >purpose of remorse and grief. (From a Darwinian or Darwin-like
> >viewpoint.)
> >
> Fascinating undertaking, I've been wondering about the implications of the
> "return" of angels myself of late. I think the 'answer' lies in the fact
> that the higher human consciousness (some animals also - witness the
> apparent grief and remorse of elephants over the death of a herd mate) gain
> a sense of personal worth from the ritual. People project their acts of
> remorse to their own eventual deaths - and thus know that their own passing
> will also be morned. Life and the interactions of individuals in the group
> would be vastly different if this were not so. Imagine being tossed off
> without a care. Your research should show that all intelligent animals that
> are socially organized display this behavior to some degree. This whole
> tendancy reflects in all acts of apparent altruism - none of which is 'true'
> altruism, because we do gain something in the acts. How this
> socio-biological behavior affects natural selection is a subject of debate.
> Obviously it is not so easy to quantify as beneficial physical mutations.
> Keep us posted on your findings - this knowledge is very important in many
> ways, not the least of which is debunking all that angel nonsense.
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> || Come ride The River ------- http://www.theriver.com/ ||
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