Essay 12

Essay 12: The Clownfish

The Clownfish is a brightly colored fish that lives among sea anemones which is why it is also known as an anemonefish. You can Google Clownfish to see pictures of this colorful fish. But the most striking thing about the Clownfish is that they are all born male, and they change into females if there aren’t enough available females. If I walked into a bar where there were too many males and suddenly, I turned into a female, I would find that very awkward. How do you dress for such possibilities? How do you prepare yourself mentally? Fortunately, this does not happen to humans. I would definitely stay away from bars if it did.

While the Clownfish’s ability to change it sex is a little extreme, it is not unusual to find animals that automatically adapt to their circumstances in other ways. For example, animals with fur often grow heavier coats in the winter and then shed them again in the summer. Some reptiles and some aquatic invertebrates can change their color to blend into background scenery. Some mammals hibernate to slow down their metabolism in the winter when food is in short supply. So, what does this have to do with humans?

I graduated from high school in the late 1960’s and I was amazed at how many of my high school classmates became caught up in the times and turned into very different people than they were in high school. Some simply followed current trends regardless of how inconsistent that was given the person they were in high school. Some went in less trendy directions as though society needed a certain mix of types, and they were called or pulled by something to fill a certain role. Some were lucky and filled a role that really paid off. Others were not so lucky.

I was interested in this because the turbulent times we are going through now are very similar to the turbulent times back then. The decade of the 2020’s is supposed to be one of those chaotic decades of social change after which things should calm down again. The world of 2030 should be a very different world from the world of 2020. But how do we get there? How does a group of people go from being one way to being another? To use examples from the 1960’s, how did we get from Leave it to Beaver to Charles Manson? How did we get from Pat Boone to Heavy Metal? Some of you might be thinking, “the answer is simple, one step at a time.” But each of those steps turned us, little by little, into going in a different direction. So, what caused those changes?

I have a theory. I have many theories. Some are way more substantial than others. This theory is on the less substantial side. Social change seems to run in a variety of cycles. When things are going smoothly, individuals feel some pressure to conform. Over time the current direction begins to fall short of meeting the needs of society. So, we need change. Individuals are called upon to fill new roles in society as we explore new possibilities. Over time society shifts and problems are solved. Things settle down again. And the process continues.

I use the phrase called upon with some reservation. It has some religious connotation and while I would not rule that out, I would not limit it to that either. It could be social pressures. It could be psychological. For all I know there could be a genetic component. Society is made up of individuals and society changes only when individuals change. And individuals only change when they have to. The Clownfish does not decide to change sex. It simply happens. And people don’t decide to change to fulfill certain social roles. It simply happens. And we should ask ourselves exactly how does that happen?

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