Thursday, May 12, 2016

angry chimps 2 of 3


ANGRY CHIMPS 2

At first, you wouldn’t think that warfare would be all that effective of a survival trait.  At least half of all activity is given to support the military infrastructure ( I’m not speaking of the nations portion of GNP given to defense, but the fact that pre-agriculture, half the population spent their lives training and practicing hunting and warfare-meat is our species preferred food, but the bulk of the calories collected was vegetable matter done by females.  Hunting only makes sense in the division of labor if it was a precursor to military service.  And no, Politically Correct Polly, men didn’t laze around all day in luxurious dominance.  That makes no sense evolutionarily.  If all men did that, the one tribe that DIDN’T would win and that would become the new survival trait.  Just as the tribes that allowed females to become warriors would be wiped out by an all male fighter tribe.  Just as it makes sense for the tribal male members to be related-more incentive to cooperate in war-but the females to be from outside the group as stealing breeders is a better survival trait than raising them ).

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And while warfare benefits some, it always is far worse for most.  Given that the tribes up to eight thousand years ago, for a minimum of sixty thousands years of modern man which doesn’t include the million years prior to that where mankind evolved, were equalitarian, what would stop the majority who hated war from outlawing it?  Nothing, except survival.  Evolution isn’t a hard concept.  Survival promoting traits are passed on by the winners.  Oh, of course, there is more to it than that.  Sometimes you get a luck of the draw in a sudden cataclysm where the minority trait ensues survival ( which is how some think evolution is mostly structured, not by a slow process but by sudden violent lurches in other directions-like when the asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs and suddenly mammals got the run of the place.  That theory might be wrong, but it is a good illustration ).  Sometimes you reinforce a positive trait one procreation at a time.  But mostly, yes, it is survival of the fittest.  Not the strongest but the most adapted to the circumstances.  And while it might suck to admit war is a survival trait, you don’t get widespread universal behavior throughout the ages if it isn’t beneficial to survival.

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While it might also seem that conservation is in the best interests of people, that never happens.  Anthropological studies everywhere prove that those mythical noble savages in tune with nature never existed outside a few White Europeans fanciful notions.  All hunter/gatherer ( along with herding and farming ) groups overexploit their environment.  There are never more than rudimentary efforts at not wasting.  Obviously this is in direct violation of common sense to ones own welfare, and that observation alone has launched tens of thousands of book printings, each author killing legions of trees to spread the word that we must save the Earth because it is in our own best interests.  Well, certainly, writing that book was in the best interest of the author, who spared no natural resource to ensure he and his family ate well.  Which is what each and every human does, today and throughout history.  Immediate survival rather than future resources.  Why?  What makes this a survival trait?  Why save the individuals over the species?  How is that a survival trait?

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Well, think about it.  If you conserve and your neighbor doesn’t bother, what is going to happen?  He runs out of food ( or wood or fertile soil or whatever ) and he comes and takes it from you.  How can he do that?  Because you were living within your means, and had no surplus.  He didn’t wait until he was hungry to attack you, but just until he knew the food was going to start running out, and he had a surplus of population and energy because he mined the principle of nature rather than the interest.  It was in each groups best interest to consume all and then take the neighbors rather than in conserving for the future ( when surplus is widespread, warfare goes from a rolling boil to a simmer.  We can’t turn off the aggression but we can mute it, mostly.  War is NOT because we are aggressive but we become aggressive when it is the best worst choice.  We are trained and bred for aggression but can also rationally control it ). 

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We become warlike because pacifism is a losing strategy, so we live like we must go to war ( and, despite the universal condemnation of Shrub for attacking a currently peaceful nation that MIGHT pose a future threat, he was just displaying his simian roots by preempting a potential future enemy.  This is a sound strategy, even if it wins you no accolades from idiots raised to believe all nurture and no nature.  It was also the strategy used by Hitler, and condemned by the US.  Of course, when we do it it is okay ).  More tomorrow.  I’ll be covering how war indirectly reduces population and how agricultural empires evolved.

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11 comments:

  1. Perhaps your awesome hair is combed to tightly today but, the evidences you sight have nothing to do with evolution. They are evidence of adaptation. That is an entirely different notion. I've said before that I disregard evolution more for it's lack of evidence than it's being contrary to religion. Of course all species adapt or die but, they never become a different species in order to adapt. If they did, the fossil record would be littered with transitional species (missing links). Instead we see no such thing. The trait of human violence is one of adaptation, not evolution.

    -Novice

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    Replies
    1. As far as the difference, or the substitution of one word for another, I plead ignorance. If I'm misusing one as a descriptive, consider it shorthand rather than a literal.

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  2. Good stuff, all the way through, generous food for deep thought.
    Thank you.

    Veering off only slightly:

    Ultimate irony...or is it hypocrisy?
    I always get them two mixed up.

    Or maybe it's both:

    A person writes a book titled,
    "Save the Trees",
    and it becomes a best seller,
    selling millions upon millions of books.

    BTW, ever consider trying dreads in that golden mane? LOL

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  3. What happened to the dinosaurs? The most likely explanation is hunting. Wild, man-eating beasts have been a problem for ages. If your herds/children/friends were being killed by dinosaurs or you were having your crops decimated, I guarantee as soon as you had enough strong, armed friends, you'd form a hunting party and track it to it's lair and finish it off. Eventually the reduced breeding stock population wouldn't be strong enough to recover from the hunting pressure. I'm not an environmentalist, but I do believe in conserving/preserving our natural resources. Probably most would agree that human activity is responsible for most known species extinctions.

    The same thing is currently going on in my area with mountain lions. The population is way too high (local F&G warden also agrees), and I know several people who've had their livestock decimated, sometimes repeatedly with 50-100% losses. Some have gotten depredation permits and are just waiting for their chance to solve the problem. There is also a possibility that there was poor adaptation from climate change from the post-flood ice age, weakening the population to where hunting was more successful in eliminating the population.

    If you ever need a new topic for research, I recommend dragons/dinosaurs (terrible lizard). If you can find a quality dictionary from the 1800s, you'll see under the definition of dragon, something to the effect of "now rare." Scholars from the 1500s also mentioned them.
    Peace out

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    1. Are you saying dinasaurs were around with man? Sorry, I'm a bit confused. Sarcasm I'm not picking up on?

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    2. Yes, dinosaurs on earth simultaneously with man.
      Peace out

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    3. I've never heard of this, other than from Saturday morning cartoons or REALLY BBB movies. Not to say it is false, just that it flies in the face of purported evidence. The theory that petroleum is from dead dinosaurs was from one guy, not even really a scientist but a dilatant, and everyone bought into that. If that is false, and oil is abiotic ( don't get excited Frack Fags, the replentishment rate precludes Forever Oil ), and fossil dating is incorrect, or if man goes back a lot longer ( a lot of "if's" ), I suppose anything is possible. Still, seems a strangely screwy theory to buy into.

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  4. War provides all sides in a conflict a reduction in population a mixing of genetics and an increase in genetic strength. This alone would make war an evolutionary drive.
    Add in a limited resource base and over-exploitation, it just makes sense.
    Not that your chosen group has to instigate wars. If your tribe has surplus that another group needs they will trade for it or try to take it - if you are ready for them to try to take it your are ready for war from a (often superior) defensive stance. Wipe out their warriors when they attack, then take the cream of the crop of their women and children to improve your genetic diversity. And then swing back into a defensive posture and get back to a surplus situation (there is no such thing as a surplus really, just trade goods and stockpiles against hard times).

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    1. And remember, a time honored method of attack is your allies have a feast in your honor, then attack you. The original Trojan Horse. Beware allies more than your sworn enemies.

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    2. Beware allies more than your sworn enemies.

      I KNEW IT !!!! The banker are worse than Muslim's!

      Delete

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