The first day of the rest of my life

As a student of animal behaviour, I've been watching the recent deterioration of both capitalism and communism with a sense of incredulity and a bit of schadenfreude. We are hard-wired to seek mates who have desirable genes. Once upon a time, those who could provide abundant food (more wooly mammoth, anyone??) would have healthier offspring, and those individuals were therefore more likely to pass their genetic material to the next generation. How is it that people cannot grasp the basic fact that Homo sapiens is currently mortgaging the future of our local and general ecosystems for short-term gain, and all to try and snare a partner with great bone structure. Matt Ridley summed up the situation perfectly in his book "The Red Queen"; an organism who can access a potential mate that has to access to significant resources will be more likely to pass offspring on to the next generation. Ahhh, the selfish gene. Our planet is overpopulated by Homo sapiens, and the economic models that have (up to this point at least) suggested that the answer to quality of life lies in escalating population growth and the associated exponential growth of consumption make me go on a shooting rampage Michael Douglas in 'Falling Down'-stylez. The happiest times in my life have been when I have been disassociated from everything considered nescessary for 'happiness' in our consumer-driven society. Lying in a swag on the top of a brick-red sand dune, surrounded by silver-blue chenopod shrubs, listening to the distant rumble of a gun-metal grey storm put everything in perspective. I may be mistaken, but from what I see, there are very few people who question the motives behind many political decisions, let alone the emphasis on mass consumption as a panacea. Did 6 billion people not get the memo?? Yr Doin It Rong. I hope that this madness ends soon.

Ahhh. That feels better. Nothing quite like venting my spleen. Hmmmm... How do you vent a spleen?