> Just wondering?---
>     Is species extinction anything like the extinction of courtesy,
> manners, gentlemanliness? Is classical music extinct? Is music with
> words one can understand extinct?  Do heros still exist back in some
> rain-forest?
>     "The Question ? Man"
 
        Art the "question mark man" has whimsically asked whether species
extintion could be compared to the regrettable decline in some of the
more delightful and satisfying things in life, such as "Classical" music
( a colloquial term by which is commonly meant anything written before
1900 or so, and music written since then which requires more than a few
chords on a guitar and a loud amplifier to perform.  Technically, the
Classical Period in music lasted only from about 1765 to 1800, being at
first a reaction to the excesses of the brief but turbulent post-Baroque
era, and ending with the death of Haydn and the first stirrings of the
emotionally-explicit expositions of that Romantic genius, Beethoven.
Mozart was unquestionably the best composer of this brief period), good
manners (which i just violated by shamelessly lecturing you on the true
meaning of the term "Classical Music"- EXCUUUUUUUUUSE MEEEEEEEEE!!),
politeness, and understandable verbal music, elocution and
comprehensibility-wise.  Well, i can say with great confidence, Art,
that  your answers are no, and no -ie, these two phenomena are not
markedly similar, since the hallmarks of civility and culture he cites
as being possible candidates for extinction, are in fact not in any
signifigant danger, provided one doesn't use the proverbial (but
essentially dead) "idiot box" offerings as a guide to what still occurs
with remarkable frequency in the real-time continuum we live, move and
have our being in (to impolitely paraprase Acts 17:28), and while their
overall incidence may indeed be diminishing,  the boorish vulgarities of
our sleep-walking, mass-media-manuipulated, possessions-driven,
sex-drugs-violence-and-Rock-and-Roll-worshipping consumer society will
NEVER overpower our natural  proclivity to seek and emulate the finer
things in life (civility; the clear expression of coherant thought ( set
to music or not);  the refined expression of the more mature art forms;
and the single-sentence diatribe), so long as one person with an
emotional-maturity age-quotient of over 35 exists on the face of this
challenged-yet-still-gloriously-diverse planet.   Even the sometimes
questionable Mr. Art is living proof of this inalienable fact, as he is
virtually infallibly polite whenever he communicates with you gentle
Conchlers, or myself (sometimes a bit more than a trifle strange (to be
polite!), but nevertheless  quite civil in tone, and presumably intent).
 
        As for heroes in rain forests, sorry, i wouldn't know!
 
                                                                                                        Courteously Yours,
                                                                                                        Ross M.
 
P.S.:  My sincere apologies if this is the first thing you read today!!