We Think Locally And So We Don't Act Globaly.

I had another fun run today, with RadioLab as my guide.

Earlier this month I mentioned that I had fallen across some stats about traffic fatalities. My hope in using that discovery is to make a (brief) case for public transit as a public health remedy.  The question is, how many of the (not quite) 40,000 people who die in the US each year could be saved if we had a vibrant public transit system.

Underlying that question (but unexpressed at the time) is the problem of why we can rally as a nation and go off to war after 3,000 people die in the attacks of Sept. 11, but can't muster the same resolve to attack problems that claim a much larger number of casualties.

We know the answer intuitively. The world stops for Baby Jessica. There seems to be something about how we're wired that leads us to follow more dramatic peril.

And that's where RadioLab comes in, with an episode unfortunately titled "Killing Babies, Saving the World." You should listen to it, but the intro paragraph explains the title. And the premise is that global concerns are a relatively recent phenomena in human evolution. We just aren't wired to care about the big picture.

The other episode I listened to is called "New Normal".  One of the interesting points (which was really a side point) was that Stalin wasn't a fan of evolution.  So, Stalin and the 44% of Americans who think we are today as God created us however many years ago are on the same side. I kinda like that. I wonder if Stalin got a flu shot. But as always, I digress. The main point of the New Normal is that we can change and sometimes for the better. But they use primates as one example (and foxes as another), so you'd have to believe in evolution to have hope.

Posted via email from Right (over) Here, Right Now