A Treat

We all love to indulge ourselves sometimes, don't we? Some of us like an occasional bar of chocolate, while others prefer a day at the spa (strange people). Personally, I like to allow myself to spend a little more money than usual.

As you may or may not already know, I am a bit stingy. I tend not to buy unnecessary objects or ridiculous things, nor buy things for the sake of having them. I don't indulge myself in sweets, despite my sweet tooth, and don't tend to go to the cinema on my own money either. In fact, I am more than a small part miser. Scrooge. This is why spending a bit more than usual seems to me like a bit of a daymaker.

But I'm not here to talk about how stingy I am. I'm here to ask: Just how did a tendency to indulge one's self evolve?

As we all probably know, evolution is simply when an animal develops a random mutation that gives it an advantage over its fellows. However, for such a mutation to 'catch on', as it were, it has to grant the creature an advantage of some kind. In the case of longer necks in giraffes, then this is rather an obvious mutation to assimilate. However, how does a wish to indulge benefit a creature?

As far as I'm aware, humans are the only creatures on Earth that have the capacity to indulge themselves - after all, monkeys may have favourite fruits and all that, but they hardly feed themselves with them as a treat (in the wild at least). After all, what benefit does it do a species for individuals to reward themselves?

This, of course, brings up the question of how we came by it in the first place. Personally, I think the most likely is that we simply have the mental capacity to be able to reward ourselves. Humans have a uniquely complex social system, with certain safeguards in place to stop its members from dying off (i.e. medical care). Being as complex as we are, we've also managed to invent other things - such as WMDs - that don't benefit anybody. Murder is a prime case of this. Only creatures who have managed to gain a very complex social structure could ever kill for something that's fairly unnatural. In some cases murder may have its roots located deep in nature, but nowadays, it's more about greed. But that's a different story...

It's an interesting thought, though, and one I shall leave you with for now. You're probably groaning, whether aloud or in your head. Well, I'm sorry, but I don't hold all the answers... Just most of 'em.

Until next time!