February 08, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:From the excellent Random Jottings,
From the excellent Random Jottings, a thought for the day (note that I don't have the thought for the day, because I'm hoping to have more than one):
Your brain comprises about 3% of your body weight and uses about 14% of your energy intake.Keep this in mind when you hear grey-beard Chomskyites condemn America and the West for using more than their 'fair share' of the world's resources. We are the brains of the world. We are the ones creating the advances that give us the hope of eliminating the ancient ills; plague, war and famine. In fact we have eliminated them wherever Western Civilization is allowed to flourish. We didn't do it on a starvation diet.
Your brain burns calories like a bonfire. It's an extremely expensive luxury that doesn't pay off right away. (That's why high intelligence isn't usually an evolutionary option.) But the payoff, when it comes, is big. We in the West, and especially America, should be eating the biggest slice of the pie. It's part of the job. It's our responsibility.
Addendum: High technology itself is a sort of voracious brain that can only exist on top of a very large and healthy industrial body. It's the apex of a very broad pyramid; for every visionary at the top, there are thousands of burger-flippers and siding salesmen at the bottom.
Europe might take issue that all this wealth is our fair share. But they'd find it hard to deny (if they were self-honest, a dubious proposition) that we've got that much stuff because we make that much stuff. And that without our wealth, all the technological goodies they so enjoy wouldn't exist. Posted by Jane Galt at February 8, 2002 01:56 PM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links