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[Ron at]

Hello - The natural world has been functioning for a long time. Almost as
if it knows exactly where it is coming from and where it is going to. It
has taken some amazing turns along the way. Man (like the last guest to
show up at a party who is hurriedly trying to figure out what has occurred
before he got there so as to be able to fit in) has invented science. Which
is a good thing. All kinds of science - even non-science science
(nonsense). Of course this necessities that there be scientists.

Now I have heard that cats view their "masters" as belonging to them and
not they to the human. In other words the house cat is convinced that it is
the one in control. This of course is not true as the master giveth
(shelter and food) and the master taketh away (testicles and claws). I
think sometimes that scientists think that nature belongs to them . This is
demonstrated by how much  scientists have screwed nature up (they thought
kudzu would do what they wanted). "We" thought we could change or control
nature. No so. Nature is, and always be, in control. Mess with mother
nature and find out.

I have also heard the saying that "Clothes make the man, a man does not
make the clothes." That means that one can take a bum and put him in a fine
suit and it will make him look like a gentleman. Well, taxonomists don't
make nature. Nature makes the taxonomist, cladist, etc.

So what is all this about? Just when some group (discipline) thinks they
have nature all figured our and try to stuff it in their neat little box
(clade, rank, whatever) nature has a way of busting out of the box. It is
the exceptions of nature, not the rules of taxonomy, cladistics,
systematics, diagrams and genetic mapping of man that is in control. Nature
does not have to act the way we want. It does not have to evolve by the
route we think it will. Science likes rigidity, law, order, stability,
predictability. While we argue over systems and codes, we need to remember
who is in charge. It isn't us. Nature will make all factions look good or
bad at some juncture in "their" process.

(Every group needs a philosopher, or two.)

- Ron
VISIT  www.tils-ttr.org  NOW.
PS   I will try to lurk for awhile.