Mike Ferrentino steps back to look at how we’re evolving as a species. Or not…
No matter how loudly we bang our civilization drum, I can’t help but feel that we are stalled out in our evolutionary progress.
Naturally, if you don’t believe in evolution, this isn’t a problem. However, I do believe in evolution, or I want to believe that we are in some transitory state, adapting to the forces of nature around us and at the same time using these big brains of ours to coax our consciousness toward whatever is next. ‘Waiting For The Great Leap Forward’, as Billy Bragg would have put it. I get the feeling that somewhere just after the industrial revolution we forfeited a big chunk of the naturally aspirated physical leapfrogging that had us crawl out of oceans, grow limbs, swing through trees, ditch the tails, lose the fur pelts and discover the wonder of opposable thumbs in favor of an obsession with technology.
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But we’ll end up allergic to everything while having used all our technology to create a world full of supergerms, and we’ll have to livein those damn hermetically sealed bubbles. But then again, there’s hope. For every “MyGODwillyoulookitthat!” moment in the latest New WorldDisorder film, there are legions of anonymous kids on hoopty BMX bikes going just as big on a regular basis, probably with their pantsfalling halfway off, wallet chains slapping their spines and their shoes untied. To say nothing of the fixie resurgence – take a bike that iselementally lethal to ride in traffic, one gear, no freewheel, no brakes,and a head angle tight enough to make Graeme Obree weep withjoy, slice the bars down to where there’s just enough room to slide an Oury grip on either side of the stem, then go do tricks in skatebowls while wearing a messenger bag full of Pabst Blue Ribbon cans.
Somewhere in the world, while most of us are trying to get cozy, there are people doing the exact opposite of taking the easy way out.
And if anyone’s going to evolve, my money’s on them.
Damn. I’d forgot how much I liked Mikes writing style.
Well put sir.