Encroachment and Prohibition (Science and Evolution)

[Ken Kinman]

John,
     What I see as "germane" is that strict cladists are increasingly
encroaching on the freedom of traditional eclecticists to pursue science in
their own way.  And the most vocal and extreme strict cladists make little
effort to hide their contempt for those who disagree with them, sometimes
commenting that they are just waiting for us "to die off".
     This encroachment naturally evokes more and more responses about "those
damn cladists".  The Kinman System was designed to maximize the freedom of
BOTH sides to pursue their own philosophies.  It allows both strictly
cladistic classifications, as well as classifications with some paraphyletic
taxa as well.  The insistence of strict cladists that ALL paraphyletic
groups must be done away with is unreasonable and one-sided.  Arguments that
paraphyly is "unnatural" are about as convincing as religious groups arguing
that dancing is a sin.
     Strict cladism is seen by many as uncompromising, single-minded, and
sometimes as being like an abusive spouse whose aggression just gets worse
and worse over time.  Like abused spouses, we are beginning to realize that
we are not alone and increasingly banding together to fight back.  It's a
matter of freedom, and when a bully's restrictive idea of freedom continues
to infringe on the freedom of others, someone has to stand up and say enough
is enough.  You can only shrug the problem off for so long with "cladists
will be cladists", when serial appeasement clearly never seems to satisfy
them.
      The cladisto-eclectic schism began in the late 60's and early-70's
(when I was in college).  It began as a philosophical division, and slowly
became more political, social, and even economic.  But again, this has been
mainly a zoological thing, and Botany is where a cladisto-eclectic synthesis
will first take hold.  Zoology will no doubt lag far behind and suffer the
consequences during a prolonged adjustment period.  The resulting
nomenclatural confusion will negatively affect our abilities to do science,
so I think it is "germane".
           -------- Ken
P.S.  While I agree that paraphyly has been overused in the past (and worse
yet, it was usually inexplicit and often sloppy), that is no grounds for
prohibiting it.   Just as Prohibition (of alcohol) in the U.S. was a bad
idea, the attempted Prohibition of Paraphyly in the latter quarter of the
20th Century will be seen as an extreme measure that ended up doing more
harm than good.

_________________________________________________________________
MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE*
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus