The Ugly World We Are Creating
I recently read an article that examined the impact of human behavior
on the evolution of flowers. Turns out that we have a
pathological tendency to create an ugly world. Humans naturally
tend to pick flowers that are beautiful rather than ugly -
unfortunately, this means ugly flowers are more likely to reproduce
than beautiful ones. In turn, generation after generation, wild
flowers become more and more ugly. It’s ironic that those who
seek beauty leave a less beautiful world in their wake.
WitchyProf
August 28, 2005 @ 1:26 pm
You reap what you sow!
Those who make a habit of keeping the seeds safely tucked away and then re-plant them each year can enjoy the beauty endlessly!
laura
December 3, 2005 @ 10:34 pm
yes we do understand the system of nature. and we are the black woodpeckers of beauty. we see beauty and want it. We have learned so intensively that we must consume, we have all the right to as long as it serves our needs…
Flowers or of no use. I mean, when we pick them to stuff them in a vase until they are all rotten and smelly.
maybe what causes our pathological tendency to create and ugly world, is because we think beauty can be consumed.
For me, beauty is about the experience of it, and maybe even for the experience of not being able to have it, this rendering, just watching it where it is supposed to be, where it was born and where it shall pass away.
In this way, no ugliness is created by us, since there was no need to consume beauty
Eric Perramond
July 27, 2006 @ 11:31 am
Again, this needs some measure of explanation, not just banter.
Humans are responsible for the blossoming (tee-hee) of floristic diversity, especially in food crops that featured flowers, and it can only be argued that in the last 130-150 years have humans begun an “ugly” phase in selection, as we have commodified both food crops and ornamental flowers nationally and internationally.
But humans do create beauty, do garden, do selectively breed for beauty… We do not high-grade selectively, and plants have figured US out a long time ago, and have adapted their color spectrum, size and range of biochemical signals not just for humans but for all variety of fauna.
Again, stick with what you know. - epp
Vlad
August 9, 2006 @ 4:47 pm
Well, dear philosopher, do not forget about the people that are cultivating flowers and about people that like flowers and have them at home. Of course the best and the most beautiful flowers. THerefore your argument has no real ground because you limit yourself only to a small number of people and not to all.
Blake
January 26, 2007 @ 2:27 am
What came first, the beauty or the flower?
White Dove Books
April 6, 2007 @ 4:22 am
This is a lovely, if somewhat ironic, observation. Thankfully, by the sheer weight of numbers, the flowers will always win against the onslaught of the flower-pickers.
So that means that wildflowers will continue to make themselves attractive to insects as they have always done.
RonTheoFila
October 5, 2007 @ 3:15 pm
For the most part, beauty is a construct of culture and not an absolute (however, there have been reported psychological studies where infants tend to give more attention - interpreted as a greater degree of preference - to the photographs of attractive people). I believe our tendency to take constructive truths and turn them into absolute truths is the source of much ugliness in our world; the truth of beauty being one of many such misinterpretations. In my experience, many people assume that beauty is universal and evident to all; and, as other psychological studies have shown, human nature tends to treat ugliness unkindly and with disdain; and, at the same time, assumes what is beautiful is good, honest and worthy of admiration. Furthermore, that which is familiar and not threatening to us is often given the additional attribute of being beautiful; and those things that are foreign and invoke fear are seen as ugly. Therefore, beauty is often utilized to justify the perpetration of many atrocities and violent acts; hence beauty can be seen as one of the various sources from which ugliness (e.g., war, genocide, prejudice, etc.) is created in our world. Hence the tendency to attribute villain like (ugly) characteristics to perceived enemies. Moreover, by doing so, beauty acts as a standard by which to support and foster a given culture.
Harry
March 18, 2008 @ 8:14 am
Yes it is ironic that those who seek beauty leave a less beautiful world in their wake.Those who are keeping the seeds safely inserted away and then re do them each year can enjoy the beauty incessantly!