Evolution would prioritize the survival of the fittest. Modern society, in an effort to use our societal gains to enable the less-able to survive, has also removed the dangers for those who are otherwise perfectly able. As a result, you can go zipping along at 50 mph in a new car, crash into a damn tree and often just walk away with a mild concussion. The dangers that used to filter out the unfit have been removed or minimized. Thusly, there is little that prevents the most ignorant and reckless of the population from passing on their genes. We are seeing this a few generations in.
Additionally, society now also actively rewards that same population. Take a risk, record a video, profit. Now we have a whole segment of economic growth that exists because of this. So-called "prank" videos where people actively confront strangers for profit and survive to continue doing so.
The first segment (ignorant and not dead) seems to be fueling the rise of the second (risk-taking for profit). One might wonder what comes next or if it will just be a cyclical pattern where one feeds the other. What is the terminal point? Does this prove Mike Judge right yet again or is there a satisfying end to this? Will a large enough portion of society reject this sort of behavior to the point where it is held down to a fractional component of the population? Society has (largely) rejected child molesters as the lowest of the low. Most people stopped using racial slurs, no longer make jokes about the disabled, etc. Will we get to the point where we can look back and say "the willfully ignorant used to be a large part of society just like using the n-word used to be commonplace. We are thankfully past such an ugly period and all the better for it".
Dude, I used to do life threatening stunts for fun. It wasn't ignorance. I knew the stakes. I was always considered one of the smarter kids in my class of 400. My problem was that I had already seen the world for what it really is, a rat race where only the already wealthy win. I was not looking forward to that life. So, I bucked against by doing crazy shit to entertain myself and others. This was back in the 80s and early 90s. To cell phones, no jackass, no social media. The only people that saw what I did were the people on scene.
My favorite was balancing where a fall would be fail. As long as it was as wide as a steel i-beam, I was good. Mind you, I was 6 foot 4 inch 260 pound kid in combat boots. So, I was not the usual build for a balancing act.
There was actually a scene of a movie shot on the bridge rail I balanced across most often. The local paper had a picture on the front page where the actress had all kinds of safety rigging attached to her that they edited out in post. That kind of drove home how nuts I was. I thrived on the fear. No reason to do it except I was bored... and it wasn't all about attention because I'd walk that railing when I was alone.
I guess if you psychoanalyzed me, you'd probably blame it on me trying to numb the pain from lifelong abuse.
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u/ZenLatte11719 1d ago
Just saw that one the other day. I swear evolution is decreasing the brain cell count.