Do you believe in evolution?  Survival of the fittest?

A big part of the theory of evolution is that over time we get better.  Or if not better we get stronger.  Or taller.  Or healthier.  Or better looking.  Or something that we could chalk up to “improvement.”  Indeed there are quite a few people who’d make that claim and quite a bit of evidence to support it.

While I think we’ve evolved, I personally, don’t see much improvement over the millenniums.  I think there’s a lot of evidence that we’re not much better than the alleged brutes that proceeded us.  You look around at all the stupidity, violence, and overall creepiness that infests society (and us!) and it is hard to see how this is progress.

I bring the history of humor to support my case.

According to Reuters, there earliest recorded joke could have come right from an elementary school yard.  And those close behind will hearken you back to locker-room humor.  Here, according to Reuters, the world’s first known joke was a saying among Sumerians (currently Iraq) went something like this …

“Something which has never occurred since time immemorial … a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap.”

OK, I’m sure something got lost in translation.  But the fact that the first joke ever recorded was a fart joke says a lot about how far we have not come.

We keep looking around and remarking about how much has changed.

In so doing I think we miss all the stuff that hasn’t changed … and likely never will.

Understand that and you’ve got insight.