[Taxacom] A good year indeed!

[Stephen Thorpe]

Who has the right to decide what is or isn't "good enough" or "best enough"? If those who end up with the jobs are by definition the "best enough", then it is meaningless circularity ...


--------------------------------------------
On Fri, 14/11/14, Michael A. Ivie <mivie at montana.edu> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Taxacom] A good year indeed!
 To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
 Received: Friday, 14 November, 2014, 8:32 AM
 
 Jason,
 
 On further reflection, I may
 see where you misunderstood.  Social 
 Darwinism is the idea of the survival of the
 fittest.  It is absolute, 
 and the social
 losers lose because of a fault of their own.
 
 This has nothing to do with my
 comments. It is more the "survival of the 
 fit enough."  Do not look at it from the
 individual side, where the 
 underemployed in
 our science cannot be said to be deficient, but from 
 the health of the science, where those who
 "win" a job are as an 
 aggregate,
 a highly selected pool of excellence.  This makes things
 grim 
 for any individual, as the
 "best" might never get a job, but the "best
 
 enough" does.  However, I am talking
 about the future of insect 
 systematics, and
 it is looking solid.  Many jobs this year, and a large 
 pool of excellence.
 
 Mike
 
 On
 11/13/2014 1:00 PM, JF Mate wrote:
 >>
 As in all human enterprises, the laws of Malthus apply to
 our science.Our "reproductive capacity" is far
 higher than the carrying capacity of our institutions. There
 will always be a larger supply of propagules than can
 survive (i.e. be provided academic jobs), and selection will
 take the best and discard the others, often a majority. Some
 cohorts will have very strong selection, so that a tiny
 percentage make it through, and at other times selection
 will be relaxed, and a larger percentage will make it. Of
 course, this means that sometimes very excellent propagules
 will be discarded in lean times, and less excellent ones
 will make it through in fat times. However, the academic
 reproductive rate will always provide a diverse pool with
 different attributes and abilities, so that the overall
 resulting set will be maximally beneficial to the future.
 > Mike, you are flogging a dead horse with a
 new stick. Do you think it
 > wise to
 appeal to social darwinism to support your own personal
 > opinion?
 >
 > Best
 >
 > Jason
 >
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 >
 > Celebrating 27 years
 of Taxacom in 2014.
 
 -- 
 __________________________________________________
 
 Michael A. Ivie, Ph.D.,
 F.R.E.S.
 
 Montana Entomology
 Collection
 Marsh Labs, Room 50
 1911 West Lincoln Street
 NW
 corner of Lincoln and S.19th
 Montana State
 University
 Bozeman, MT 59717
 USA
 
 (406)
 994-4610 (voice)
 (406) 994-6029 (FAX)
 mivie at montana.edu
 
 _______________________________________________
 Taxacom Mailing List
 Taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
 http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/taxacom
 The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be
 searched at: http://taxacom.markmail.org
 
 Celebrating 27 years of
 Taxacom in 2014.