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

[j.martin.pedersen]

On 03/03/10 18:10, Kevin Carson wrote:
> 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.

There are no serious goal posts and associated coherency valid in the
context of total, deterministic nonsense.

> 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.

I agree that it is total nonsense, yes.

> 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.

You didn't - you pointed to divorce rates and equated that with monogamy.

> 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?

I don't agree to that, because I don't just lump monogamy and divorce
rates together - and I do not do that, because they are conceptually
very different.

> 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.

I didn't actually agree to anything particular, except that it is was
total nonsense, so my apologies for misleading you.

Finally, IQ testing is nonsense in itself.

 - martin