The aversion to politics -- including insect politics. Rabid bats. Emotional support animals. Animistic beliefs about a volcano. The passive aggressive strategy of the holdout juror... and of God. Walking out of the forest -- and the Stone Age -- but venturing back in -- for monkeys.
UPDATE: Here's the passage from Benjamin Franklin's "Autobiography" that I talk about in the podcast. He's just discussed his role in providing for street sweeping and streetlamps:
Some may think these trifling matters not worth minding or relating; but when they consider that tho' dust blown into the eyes of a single person, or into a single shop on a windy day, is but of small importance, yet the great number of the instances in a populous city, and its frequent repetitions give it weight and consequence, perhaps they will not censure very severely those who bestow some attention to affairs of this seemingly low nature. Human felicity is produc'd not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. Thus, if you teach a poor young man to shave himself, and keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to the happiness of his life than in giving him a thousand guineas. The money may be soon spent, the regret only remaining of having foolishly consumed it; but in the other case, he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers, and of their sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors; he shaves when most convenient to him, and enjoys daily the pleasure of its being done with a good instrument.
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