[p2p-research] Intelligent People Have "Unnatural" Preferences And Values That Are Novel In...

[Kevin Carson]

On 3/3/10, j.martin.pedersen <m.pedersen at lancaster.ac.uk> wrote:

>  > The general value may be associated with Christianity, but at least in
>  > the U.S.  divorce rates tend to be much higher in stereotypical "Red
>  > States" where authoritarian strains of fundamentalist Christianity are
>  > more common, whereas marriages on average are more stable in parts of
>  > the country where liberal protestantism predominates.
>
>
> That's the point: monogamy is an authoritarian value imposed upon people
>  through oppressive institutions - the more you are subjecting yourself
>  to them, the bigger the strain on your relationship. If you choose to
>  live monogamously out of your OWN FREE WILL, the pressure decreases. And
>  vice versa. It is not as if those Christians fundamentalists made the
>  church and its values originally. They just live in it - and of course
>  they fail more than others, because they try to live by insane and
>  insane-making rules to a degree that others do not.

>  > That's one of those paradoxes of American politics that drive the Tea
>  > Party folks crazy.

> This isn't a paradox at all: it confirms the point exactly.

I'm not sure what *wouldn't* confirm your point, because you seem to
be moving the goalposts.

You originally said you agreed completely with Athena's dismissal of
the study's findings of a correlation of higher intelligence with
monogamy as absolute nonsense, and associated monogamy as such with
authoritarian religious values.

When I pointed out its greater predominance in areas with less
religious authoritarianism and higher levels of education, you say I'm
confirming your point.

If you agree that monogamy tends to exist at higher levels in areas
with more education and less cultural authoritarianism, then how  can
you agree that the study is nonsense?

Nothing in the article Ryan linked, IMO, constituted
self-contratulatory praise for "geniuses" (monogamy correlated only to
modest differences of around ten IQ points, and I don't think an
average IQ of 105 as opposed to 95 puts anyone in the Wile E. Coyote
class), or praise for monogamy as such.  It was simply an empirical
observation on the correlation of average intelligence levels with
particular forms of social behavior.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
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