Rational Philosophy

On the genetic ancestry of the duck-billed platypus, the beating of suspects by police in Philadelphia, and the race tensions in the Democratic primary contest.

The duck-billed platypus has a bill, webbed feet, lays eggs, but has fur and nurses its young. And now that an international team of scientists has decoded the duck-bills genome its uniquely ambivalent classification — part reptile, part mammal — has become a little less mysterious. The team found that the duck-bill’s genetic line split off from the other primary line over 166 million years ago. It has many genes in common with other mammals, but has retained many reptilian genes.

In Philadelphia, police and city officials have hurried to stress that the beating of restrained suspects caught on tape by television news reporters wasn’t racially motivated. The police officers were mostly white, the suspects black. (One presumes that this means they would have beaten white suspects, too.)

And in the contest for the Democratic nomination Hillary Clinton has again hinted that her success with white voters makes her a better matched against the Republicans.

We live in the confines of our prejudices. Prejudice rests on the fear that our identity of self isn’t supreme.

Philadelphia city officials probably believe they act out of a different fear when claiming that race wasn’t a factor in the beatings. One presumes that they fear the incident will fuel racial tensions. Asserting that race wasn’t a factor allows them to feel that they’re acting to diffuse the tension. But asserting that race is not a factor before that aspect of the beatings has been thoroughly investigated seems to work counter to that aim.

Hillary Clinton fears losing more than she fears anything else, even betraying her bigotry. However latent and denied it is, bigotry does seem to underpin Clinton’s use of the difference of her race from Obama’s as a tool to further her campaign.

The duck-billed platypus, amalgam of reptile and mammal, can stand as an emblem of the possibility of living without prejudice. Rather than spending so much time parsing our differences, how much better would the world be if we could acknowledge that the world is just as diverse and bizarre as we can accept it to be.

On chubby cops, porky porcupine, and bouncy breasts.

The New York Post brings to our attention the breadth of the city’s police department… not in experience, but in waistline. It comes as little surprise to those of us who live or work in and around the city to learn that the NYPD has overweight officers. A quick trip to the bagel store or Dunkin Donuts and you’re bound to run into a cop or two. It’s hard to blame them. With the city’s precipitous decline in crime, what else is a peeky police officer to do all day? The Post seems to think it’s a problem that the city could have a 500-pound cop on the force. (Paul Soto, the Post informs us, retired with a body-mass index of 78.3, a mere 43.3 points over the level for someone considered obese.) This obsessive focus on smaller is better seems a little short-sighted.

As a case in point, Uruguayan scientists have found fossil evidence of a very large rodent, a distant relative of the porcupine that would have been more than eight feet long and a couple of thousand pounds. Showing an appreciation for this massive creature, researcher, Ernesto Blanco says, “It’s a beautiful piece of nature. You feel the power of a very big animal.” Where was Ernesto when the Post took a scoop out of poor Paul Soto?

And another size matter in the news touches on the touchy subject of breast augmentation. After reading a sobering piece in the NY Times I’d suggest that women who get implants should hold on to that warranty. Implants don’t last forever, the story tells us. After ten years they’ll probably need replacing. And if you’re unlucky you may need additional surgery to remove associated scar tissue.

While the Times registers only subtle disapproval for women who resort to implants to achieve bigger breasts (what else, I ask, is a woman supposed to do if she wants bigger breasts?) the Post is more blatant in its bias against bigness. The sensation-seeking rag completely overlooks the rationale for a law enforcement body to maintain a wide range of weights.

This is conjecture on my part as the NYPD hasn’t stooped to defend its policy against the Post’s attack, but no doubt it can be very useful to have a few Paul Sotos on the force. How else to infiltrate a ring of doughy criminals, matching them pastry for pastry without raising suspicion? And I’m sure that the flyweights in the department invariably looked to Soto to sit on (not literally of course) a resistant arrestee. Fitness, speed and agility are valuable attributes, but they’re not everything.

Being a man and less amply endowed than Officer Soto I won’t have to worry about my breasts until I turn sixty. But I ask you, how many of us men would be considering cosmetic surgery today if the Lancet were to announce a successful and seamless procedure for penis enlargement?

For a rational, science-based explanation of life’s meaning and purpose, please refer to my book: LIFE! Why We Exist… And What We Must Do To Survive.