Objects in the Mirror Get Worse Off Each Year
When we look back on today’s culture from some point in the future, what will we say? What will we be embarrassed about? What sins will we forgive ourselves for with the old “hindsight is 20/20” idiom? If we ask these questions, perhaps we can see such mistakes clearly–right now–if we only take the time to think critically.
Fashion choices often dominate this sort of thought exercise as trends change quickly, are by their nature recognizable, and are often iconic to a given year or decade. I have no doubt that the collective “we” will one day be incredibly embarrassed by men in tight pants with a swath of emo hair across their forehead or sporting the fauxhawk with a popped collar, women in jeggings or low rise jeans with a visible thong and a tramp stamp, and of course toe shoes which make even Crocs look good.
But fashion so rarely matters in the long run except for your ability to display old family photos. Other trends and events have lasting effects on the culture and the future psyche.
At one point in history, not so very long ago, frontal lobotomies were standard practice and over 50,000 people in the US alone had their brains scrambled with a blunt tool in the hopes that it’d cure what ailed them. It almost never did and some of the victims are still with us. This trend in the United States was spearheaded almost entirely by the singular vision of one charismatic individual: Dr. Walter Jackson Freeman II.
Who are the modern Dr. Freemans and what practices will we one day look down on like we now view lobotomies?
When the science is new and there’s a lack of consensus with only a shallow record of study and few results to analyze combined with a scant handful of people in positions of power, a singular messiah or very small group can have great sway over the culture.
But time and progress marches on and more people become aware, more eyes and minds are on the problem, the record grows and data goes from anecdotal to comprehensive. New solutions arise and old ways are reformed or discarded. Sometimes we forgive the front-runners for their imperfections but other times we see them as monsters. So too do we realize that some great minds of the time were under-appreciated and their keen insights are only appreciated after their deaths. Nikola Tesla is one such genius who is only now enjoying a resurgence in importance and recognition.
If I had to provide some names for the Dr. Freeman’s in the Dog Fancy, Lloyd Bracket and Carmen Battaglia come to mind. The first gave us the eponymous formula that is basically Blakewell style inbreeding with a dog on the cover, and the later is his current day champion within the AKC.
In the future I’ll bring you more analysis on Carmen Battaglia PhD and you can read my thoughts on Brackett here:
Brackett’s Formula for Failure
Brackett’s Formula: Nothing Special
Who are your nominations for Freemans and Teslas in dogdom? Who should we dump into the rubbish bin of history and whose stock will rise in the future?
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Freeman Awards:
The people and events that changed the Afghan hound in the West from an aboriginal type to a giant attenuated hair beast.
The Saluki people who are spending a bunch of time screeching about how brindle will be the downfall of the Saluki and saying nothing about heart disease.
All the breeders that whine and moan about purity and tradition and make the rest of us look bad.
Tesla Awards:
Jeffrey Bragg, who wrote the articles on diversity that got me interested in the whole thing. His easy to understand articles on diversity and population genetics should be required reading for all breeders and wannabe breeders.
Jemima Harrison, for her documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed. I didn’t like PDE, I thought it was sensationalistic and didn’t give puppy buyers any real valuable information, but it brought the issue to the masses and has started to make dog breeders justify their practices to the public.
Johan and Edith Gallant, for their book S.O.S Dog: the Purebred Dog Hobby Re-Examined, and their work with the Africanis landrace.
Dog bloggers like Christopher who write about various aspects of breeding and make people think.
Zora, the Afghan hound that thought it would be a dandy thing to make puppies with a Saluki, and started me down the road to Dog Breeding Apostasy.
Jess recently posted..Random Doggage: Caged Heat
Thank you so much for the Africanis website.
Dave recently posted..Getting Down to the Basics
100% agreed.
Pennypup recently posted..Doberman Play
Since your post is not strictly limited to fashionable trends in conformation, but also mentions surgical mutilation, it would be remiss to not mention that arguably the worst atrocity against dogs here in the USA is SPEUTERMANIA.
Geneva Coats recently posted..A Cancer Specialist questions early spay-neuter
This anti-gonadism that is so prevalent in the United States is really bizarre, but you don’t realize it until you go abroad.
In Western European countries, like Germany and France, there are many dogs in virtually all the public spaces. Almost all the male dogs are intact.
And you almost never see a stray dog.
Because the dogs are taken everywhere and are given quite a bit of training off-leash, they are under control. They are fighting all the time or growling at people as they walk by.
I saw a statistic, but I cannot find the source, that European dogs live about one year longer on average than American dogs.
I wonder if our fetish for neutering every dog as a very young puppy has something to do with it.
retrieverman recently posted..Tortoise sex
I like this answer and I wonder how long it will take before we snap out of this trend, it’s so prevalent and the supporters are so passionate about it. While some trends are driven by singular style makers, like what ever Martha Stewart is doing or Oprah is pushing, gets a bump in popularity…. the speutermania has really taken hold as religion in many different groups of dogdom.
It really reminds me of the same sort of fallout from the Eugenics/Progressive movement we saw here in the states that lead to sterilizations and the rise of routine circumcision. In the case of circumcision what started as ideological changed into something I’d argue was done for reasons of fashion and myopic “tradition” long after it lost association with the impetus that made it popular to begin with.
Government sterilizations and circumcision in humans in the past are sort of like speuter and dewclaw removal in dogs now.
I took my three year old intact male collie to the dog park yesterday and (after someone incredulously asked me *Does he have BALLS?* because he was sniffing her spayed 16 year old lab, who apparently is very attractive to unneutered males for some reason) I was informed that intact male dogs over one year of age are not permitted there. Reading the comments here gives me hope that maybe *speutermania* is on the wane? Europeans are way ahead of us on this!
Incidentally, someone online told me they know of a bitch who takes estrogen for spay incontinence and is very enticing to intact males, and I wonder if that might have been the same thing going on with that elderly lab? Have you all heard of this?
I would consult with the administrators.
It sounds a bit too much like self-policing going on there.
Dave recently posted..Demystifying Rare Phenotypes
Oh, I don’t care that much. We were just there to socialize our five month old male anatolian shepherd, and you (the dog) are allowed to have balls until you are a year old, so I will just leave the collie at home next time!
The reason that they don’t allow intact mature animals is because if there is ONE thing that dogs will fight over, it’s a b_tch in heat.
Ironically, the b_tch which created the ruckus is rarely involved.
The thing is, in most townships, it is illegal to bring a bitch in heat to the dog park. Furthermore, in most counties, it is illegal to have a cycling slut to be outside, unless on a leash.
(Not sure why censorship is an issue since we are not talking about humans.)
Dave recently posted..Odd Photograph
I’d put Mark Derr on Tesla list– for many good reasons.
I’d also put Karen Pryor on it.
I’d also put anyone who isn’t afraid to say that they don’t care what a much-lauded “expert” or self-described mandarin within the dog culture says about them.
retrieverman recently posted..Tortoise sex
When they documented Newkirk on HBO a few years ago I really laughed when she spoke about her-self sterilization at a very young age. It’s a very fatalistic sort of decision to be making at a very young age, and done for a sort of pessimistic, self hating, the world is coming to an end sort of reason.
We will ‘snap out of this trend’ about the same time that it is no longer irresponsible by default to cross breeds, breed ‘just’ pets, breed not-show dogs, keep dogs on a tether or in a kennel, feed ‘regular’ dog food, etc., etc. Then we will have an extended period of ‘it’s okay for me but not for you because I’m a much better pet owner than you are.’ Then, eventually, we might have a real conversation with pet owners about what is best for their own personal animals, which is, of course, much harder, more complicated, and more fuzzy and grey than “OMG, does he have balls?!”
Jess recently posted..Random Doggage: Caged Heat