As IF Times

link Book Review: Supernormal Stimuli – WSJ.com.

Interesting premise.  If the theory of Supernormal Stimuli which postulates that our genetic proclivities can override our conscious efforts, then much activity in western society is a waste of time and money.  The obvious things jump out as useless: weight loss programs, sex addiction therapy, heck even the prison business for repeat offenders.  For criminals, the plea of   “the devil made me do it”  may gain credibility,  just blame it on that guy Darwin.  If we are predisposed to act or respond a certain way because of our evolutionary roots, a lot of things will have to be rethought.  This may be good news for Tiger Woods.

This article ties in somewhat to my last piece regarding genetic predisposition.   There appears to be more articles surfacing regarding the dominance of our factory wiring versus  environmental stimuli in determining why we do things.  This itself has  been and will continue to be topics for PhDs to cover and not really the point here.  What does occur to me is that the wiring of brains of people who consider themselves liberals versus those who see themselves as conservatives may have been set at birth.

The amusing on-going partisan bickering which is US politics,  has been entertaining because of the laugh out loud claims and accusations made by both sides over any particular issue.  Clearly, I think  the left are much more skilled at claiming preposterous and irrational positions than the boring conservative guys.  The issue hogging the headlines now is proposed health care reform.  The real  issue surrounds not if but how to fix the system.  But consider this passage from the linked article:

“…One might even argue that supernormal stimuli—or perhaps our reactions to them—are the biggest problems faced by affluent societies. The best available estimate is that 45,000 Americans die annually because of a lack of health insurance. Yet a recent study found that easily 20 times that number are dying every year from the effects of smoking, over-eating, excessive drinking and other bad habits, many of them arising from such supernormal stimuli as addictive tobacco, refined sugar and distilled spirits…”

So they estimate that almost a million people a year die from the effects of other bad habits annually as compared to the lack of insurance issue.  To be sure, no one encourages avoidable death, but considering the amount of money involved in this debate and the overwhelming opposition to the program as pushed by the Democrats, you would think rational heads would back off forcing it into law.

Liberals flock to the “for the good of the people” causes like the goose to the painted volleyball. The common tactic when logic and reason don’t sustain their arguments is to paint any opposers as ice hearted demons, or as the obviously unhinged Keith Obermann stated recently, “subhuman”.   It’s as if the forces of genealogy are competing  with the forces  of intellect and the brain side is greatly outmanned.  The left do themselves no favours by propagating the utterances of the Obermanns, the Shultz’s, the Matthews’, the Behars and the Garafalos.  If the theory of Supernormal Stimuli proves valid, then the out of reality ravings of these people can be excused because as we saw earlier, the devil made them say it.  But it should be made clear that what they say should be considered for what they are, primeval rants,  not intelligent discourse.

If I had a nickel for everytime a personality on the right made disparging ad hominem comments about personalities on the left, well, I may have change for a dime.  Instead, labels of stupid, racist, divisive,evil, retarded, subhuman, hateful, greedy and stupid again seem to be standard language for the left.  Fortunately, according to viewer ratings, it appears as if such wizards of wit are losing their audience.  People must be evolving.

link Obesity? Big Feet? Blame Darwin – WSJ.com.

In my opinion, an interesting article on some theories of human evolution.  Most of the discussion is about physical transformations and adaptations, but little is said about mental development.  If you had to guess, based on some of the theories put forth in the article, much of our thought processes must be linked somehow to tribal instincts as well.

Consider the propensity for people to rally around “heroes” in any field, be it entertainment, sports or politics.  There seems to be a natural urge to follow behind some figurehead, many of whom if analyzed logically, would be irrational choices.  Maybe there is some primitive urge on the part of people to coalesce as a tribal unit that’s at play here.  It may go a long way to explain some of the absurdities of some of today’s modern “heroes”.  There is of course the more simpler explanation that we gravitate to and support people who most resemble ourselves or aspired image of selves.  

While this may be valid for sports figures, it’s hard to stretch this explanation to cover political figures, especially with the dismal records most have.  Really, John Edwards aspirants? In the case of Barack Obama, one could argue his “differentness” attracted support among visible minorities.  If such is the case, why wouldn’t  non minorities vote for exclusively for the white guy?  Clearly in politics, “sameness” may not be the uniting glue of support.  Economics and quid pro quo may be  more determining factors. 

Is delusion a part of human evolution?  Do people suspend their individual power of reasoning against all evidence to support a tribal leader? In earlier times, maybe, since information would be harder to obtain than in our modern times.  Presumably, anyone now can get access to the facts on any issue and come to a rational conclusion, yet there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary.  An obvious example is the state of pensions in the United States, or perhaps for that matter, in Canada.  When the numbers are crunched, there is no possible way that public pensions will be able to pay out monies owed to beneficiaries when the time comes.  Yet, people willfully support candidates that tell them otherwise.  On the one hand, theory of evolution says that organisms will adapt for survival, but in the example just mentioned, people are consciously ignoring a fatal conclusion.  Maybe somewhere in the gene pool, some lemming DNA got thrown into the mix.

Modern western society may celebrate the individual in advertising and culture, but really, it appears as if we can’t really escape our evolutionary pull.  Groupthink is still in the genes.