It has happened, and I am almost beside myself.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/dec/28/political-allegiances-brain-structure-study
What they're saying, although this particular news report doesn't explain it, is that conservatives show more development of the amygdala, a brain structure involved in fear, territoriality, identification of self versus others and personal space, and various instances of psychopathology when enlarged or deficient.
Progressives show more development of the anterior cingulate cortex, which is involved in empathy, evaluation and what may be called judgment.
All of which I have been predicting for years. And waiting for,
Now, will conservatism be formally recognized as a form of psychopathology? Will a cure or treatment be developed? And how d the differences arise? Are there environmental factors that cause this differential development? Will we have sanitariums for the chronically conservative?
What they're saying, although this particular news report doesn't explain it, is that conservatives show more development of the amygdala, a brain structure involved in fear, territoriality, identification of self versus others and personal space, and various instances of psychopathology when enlarged or deficient.
Progressives show more development of the anterior cingulate cortex, which is involved in empathy, evaluation and what may be called judgment.
All of which I have been predicting for years. And waiting for,
Now, will conservatism be formally recognized as a form of psychopathology? Will a cure or treatment be developed? And how d the differences arise? Are there environmental factors that cause this differential development? Will we have sanitariums for the chronically conservative?
[Added later.]
Took a nice 2 mile walk on this fine winter evening, pondering the implications.
I'm not going to gloat over what sounds like putative conservative pathology. Instead, I want to declare that these differences between us ought to be celebrated.
Cultural anthropologists like to say that natural selection acts on human beings not so much as individuals as is the case in the rest of the plant and animal kingdoms, but on humans collectively, on human societies.
Monoculture, in biology, is dangerous. If you sow a field with very similar plants, of corn or cotton or maize or whatever, you are asking for trouble. A predator or disease could wipe you out for a whole season because there were minimal differences between the individual plants in your field. Diversity is adaptive. Diversity is a survival trait for the species.
Same thing is true of human beings.
If you want a strong human society, you don't want rows and rows of supermen bred by Nazis for war. You want diversity. You want some hyperaggressives, some natural diplomats, some scientists, some technicians who nearsightedly spend hours a day knapping flint into tools and weapons. You want lone scouts who can wander far and come back with news about what the buffalo or the nomads over the mountains are doing. You want homosexuals because they often have a divergent viewpoint. You want some conservatives and some liberals. Never, never, all conservatives or all liberals. Never a monoculture.
So let's stop this bashing. You need me just as much as I need you. And we both need Gary the homosexual next door, not to breed up more warm bodies for working or fighting but for his mind and perspective.
Respect diversity, because our lives depend on it.
I'm not going to gloat over what sounds like putative conservative pathology. Instead, I want to declare that these differences between us ought to be celebrated.
Cultural anthropologists like to say that natural selection acts on human beings not so much as individuals as is the case in the rest of the plant and animal kingdoms, but on humans collectively, on human societies.
Monoculture, in biology, is dangerous. If you sow a field with very similar plants, of corn or cotton or maize or whatever, you are asking for trouble. A predator or disease could wipe you out for a whole season because there were minimal differences between the individual plants in your field. Diversity is adaptive. Diversity is a survival trait for the species.
Same thing is true of human beings.
If you want a strong human society, you don't want rows and rows of supermen bred by Nazis for war. You want diversity. You want some hyperaggressives, some natural diplomats, some scientists, some technicians who nearsightedly spend hours a day knapping flint into tools and weapons. You want lone scouts who can wander far and come back with news about what the buffalo or the nomads over the mountains are doing. You want homosexuals because they often have a divergent viewpoint. You want some conservatives and some liberals. Never, never, all conservatives or all liberals. Never a monoculture.
So let's stop this bashing. You need me just as much as I need you. And we both need Gary the homosexual next door, not to breed up more warm bodies for working or fighting but for his mind and perspective.
Respect diversity, because our lives depend on it.
[Actually, I started thinking along these lines back in the late 1970s, while reading Watership Down. (Interesting how children's books and myths often present truths most effectively.) That story was at root about human societies and how people work together. And it did a bang-up job of showing how societies need prophets, seers, soldiers, organizers and technicians.]
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