In the most commented entry in this blog’s history (go here), I referred to Kevin Padian as “the Archie Bunker Professor of Paleobiology at Cal Berkeley.” On further reflection, it seems that standard evolutionary reasoning allows us to say that Kevin Padian actually is Archie Bunker:
One of the beauties of evolutionary theory is that it eliminates essentialism from the biological world. There’s nothing that makes humans human and fundamentally distinguishes them from their putative apelike ancestors. Darwin himself made this point in THE DESCENT OF MAN: “The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind. We have seen that the senses and intuitions, the various emotions and faculties, such as love, memory, attention, curiosity, imitation, reason, etc., of which man boasts, may be found in an incipient, or even sometimes in a well-developed condition, in the lower animals.”
Were Lennon and McCartney, besides thinking of LSD and Transcendental Meditation, also thinking of evolution when they wrote the following lyrics:
I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.
See how they run like pigs from a gun, see how they fly.
I’m crying.Sitting on a cornflake, waiting for the van to come.
Corporation tee-shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday.
MAN, you been a naughty boy, and let your face grow long.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus,
goo goo g’joobMister City P’liceman sitting
Pretty little policemen in a row.
See how they fly like Lucy in the Sky, see how they run.
I’m crying. I’m cry————ing,
I’m crying. I’m cry————ing.Yellow matter custard, dripping from a dead dog’s eye.
Crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess,
Boy, you been a naughty girl you let your Knickers down.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus,
goo goo g’joobSitting in an English garden waiting for the sun.
If the sun don’t come, you get a tan
From standing in the English rain.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus,
goo goo g’joob goo goo g’joobExpert texpert choking smokers,
Don’t you think the joker laughs at you?
(ho ho ho, he, he he, ha, ha, ha)
See how they smile like pigs in a sty, see how they snide.
I’m crying.Semolina pilchard, climbing up the Eiffel Tower.
Elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna.
Man, you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allan Poe.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus,
goo goo g’joob, goo goo goo g’joob,
goo goo g’joob, g’goo goo g’joob g’goo
(rhythmical speaking along with juba’s).
Juba juba juba, juba, juba, juba, juba, juba, juba juba. Juba juba…..
(speaking)–Repeat (eventually juba’s will stop) and fade until end.–
during the fade out background vocals:
[Simultaneously:] ‘Everybody smokes pot’ and ‘Oompa,
oompa, stick it up your joompa’ [jumper]