I have a friend who looks at all aspects of human behaviour from an evolutionary perspective: politicians rushing to ill-conceived wars out of some uncontrolled aggressive tendencies deep in our evolutionary psyche, public poetry readings stemming from a deep-seated human desire to congregate and impress others in subtle competition.

Sports represent codified and benign outlets for aggression, music is an outlet for irrational urges, religion a formal outlet for our primeval fear of the unknown.

I argue with him frequently, not because I am opposed to evolutionary theory but because using it as a catch-all explanation for individual behaviour is facile and often inappropriate. The thing that separates modern humans from fellow animals is the unique ability, through intellect and the power of rational thought, to transcend the constraints imposed by evolution.

Take the recent allegations that Waterloo Region may be somewhat lacking in cultural vibrancy. Look beyond the accusation for a moment and what becomes readily apparent is that the issue is a matter of collective pride and potentially wounded vanity.

In a recent Perspectives feature for The Record, reporter Jeff Outhit cited the Globe and Mail's science writer Stephen Strauss who, some months ago in a story about the Perimeter Institute, dubbed Waterloo "a cultural vacuum."

Several months later, Globe and Mail architecture critic Lisa Rochon lamented, in an otherwise very favourable review, that the new Perimeter building was located "in a city of surpassing ugliness." Despite the small amount of backpedalling that ensued (Strauss, for example, apparently responded that he was not editorializing, but merely conveying what despondent Perimeter researchers told him), the gauntlet has been thrown down and sensitivities are extraordinarily high.

Jan Narveson, who runs the well-respected Kitchener Waterloo Chamber Music Society, recently wrote a Second Opinion piece highlighting the artistic merits of the region and arguing that it was inappropriate to evaluate a region's cultural strength based on official numbers of people employed in the arts sector, as such data would naturally overlook cultural volunteers, of which Waterloo Region has many.

The Record itself took a somewhat different tack: in an editorial it argued that "culture is who we are and what we are as a community" and concluded "If metropolitan culture were so important to the Perimeter Institute researchers, they should have done their homework before signing on to work here."

Something very strange is going on, and it's all about pride. Doubtless, as my friend would say, this heightened sense of community pride played an essential role in our evolution as we banded together to protect ourselves from rampaging woolly mammoths. Unfortunately, today it is stopping us all from thinking straight.

I have always been somewhat out of step with many of my fellow citizens on the civic and nationalistic pride front. When I was a boy, I often rooted for the Soviets over the Canadians during epic hockey struggles because they typically played a more elegant version of the game and would invariably be sent to the gulags if they were unsuccessful.

I grew up in Toronto, the self-proclaimed "world-class" centre of the universe and bemusedly witnessed displays of chest-beating declarations of the manifold glories of the most livable city on the planet as the infrastructure decayed and rapacious condominium developers were given free rein to destroy any potential to create an attractive and dynamic waterfront.

Later I moved to Waterloo, where I witnessed local and civic pride on a scale hitherto unimaginable. In Toronto, negative comments about the city were brushed off as jealous ravings of deluded provincials. In Waterloo, negative comments were taken as little less than an attack on home and hearth.

Such extreme sensitivity is not only silly and immature, it may well prevent us from significant improvement and achieving our true potential. There is a real danger that we are letting pride interfere with a real opportunity for progress. The issue, the only question of merit, is whether we are doing all we can to improve the local cultural landscape and, if not, how we might do better.

The right response is not to redefine culture as whatever activities are pursued here so we can all remain comfortable with our present accomplishments, nor is it to sneer at discontented foreigners who should have gone elsewhere. The correct response is to evaluate objectively how we might better ourselves.

Civic pride can be a tremendous force for good. Activists, philanthropists, politicians and engaged community leaders can work together to accomplish great things for the benefit of their societies, and we are enormously fortunate that our region is blessed with a significant number of these key ingredients.

But making progress implies that we identify certain things that can be improved, rather than hurling stones at the first available opportunity.

No reasonable person would declare that the cultural community of Waterloo Region couldn't possibly be improved, and no reasonable arts lover would decline to engage in a serious discussion about how we can best move forward. Left unchecked, our overdeveloped sense of pride stops us from acting reasonably. We're supposed to be smarter than that. The woolly mammoths are long extinct.