Are We Not Homo-Sapiens?

I saw a bumper sticker on Sunday afternoon as I was on my way to see the Seahawks get embarrassed. It said 'Devo was Right'.

The band's name stems from the concept of "De-evolution," a theory developed by the founding band mates, Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaug (later joined by Bob and Jim Mothersbaug and Bob Casale). De-evolution is the belief that society is regressing instead of evolving; using the argument that society has developed a flock mentality and is slowly crumbling.

These guys also wore upside-down flower pots on their heads and never became very popular, but that's what usually happens when you try so hard not to gather a 'flock'.

As crazy as they were, I think they were onto something. One thing that Republicans and Democrats actually agree on is that our society is really messed up right now. When ABC shows Terrell Owens holding an old naked white chick before scoring three touchdowns against America's Team, outrage came from both directions. Republicans complained about our lax morals, and Democrats complained about the fact that liberals would certainly be blamed for it, even though this was done by the same folks that hired Rush Limbaugh to talk about football last year. Either way, the flock mentality continues.

But the fact remains that kids today are exposed to a lot of things on TV and the internet that we were never exposed to as kids, and Jesus is not going to change that. In an age of technology, you have to solve problems with technology. It requires innovation. And it requires an understanding that these things happen because companies know they can get away with it, not because 'liberals' are trying to poison your kids minds. The people at ABC do it because it works, and it works because we make a big deal out of it.

You would think that issues like this would be a priority for those who voted their 'morals', but the man they entrusted to keep their kids from being exposed to horny MILFs throwing themselves at Terrell Owens has never really proposed anything to address this, other than to 'restore God' to the White House and to collect a small percentage of the advertising revenue that Desperate Housewives brings in. In fact, for most issues where science or technology can play a role (and an industry doesn't have a monetary incentive to police itself), this President hasn't really put much faith in those who have the potential to help him solve even some of today's tougher problems, from our energy dependence, curing diseases, to global warning.

Never was this rift more clear than at an American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in September, when former House Science Committee chairman Bob Walker, speaking on behalf of the Bush re-election campaign, warned scientists that their moaning about the government's treatment of science could lead to a "push back" from the federal government.

The front line of this war against science has long been Evolution. More schools are either taking out, or minimizing the theory of Evolution from their science programs. Instead, these schools are teaching that human life is so complicated, and that there's still so much we don't know, that it could only have been God behind it. This is not science. This is faith, and faith is unfortunately not going to cure any diseases or stop your kid from downloading porn.

The beautiful irony in all of this, though, is that if the de-evolution of human beings goes to its extreme, the people who refused to believe that we descended from apes will probably be the first ones swinging from the trees and hurling poop at each other. And we'll finally understand why Devo wore those crazy hats.