The Invisible Life of Homo erectus

MILWAUKEE, Aug. 25 /PRNewswire/ — Worries about the H1N1 virus haven’t changed most Americans’ hand washing habits, says a national survey by Bradley Corporation, a leading manufacturer of commercial bathroom and locker room furnishings.

In Bradley’s first Healthy Hand Washing Survey, 54 percent said they “wash their hands no more or less frequently” in public restrooms since the H1N1 virus emerged.

“We were extremely surprised by that response especially since the medical community calls hand washing the best defense against the spread of cold and flu viruses,” says Jon Dommisse, director of marketing and product development at Bradley Corporation. link

And this is why I think we, as a nation, are doomed.

If it isn’t happening actively to us personally at a given moment, we take our ease. It is a paradox to me that a single American uses a seat belt before they have left the edge of the cliff at 80 mph. We have become the Wile E. Coyote Nation.

But in our defense, I mean really: if this stuff is so dangerous, why can’t we see it? We’re great believers in the Power of Natural Selection, and surely, if our species was threatened with individual and collective extinction, we’d have by now evolved the ability to see those things in our lives that are so fatally threatening.

I can see it now, how we could have taken a different path when climbing down out of those African savanna trees and getting better posture:

Our eyes see it all: The more of it, the darker it is. CO2 is yellow, flu viruses are purple and stupidity is brown.

Dear god, I’m going back up in the tree and wait this one out!