From: KPJ (kpj@sics.se)
Date: Sat Aug 11 2001 - 09:20:15 MDT
It appears as if Miriam English <miriam@werple.net.au> wrote:
|
|Actually, I don't think it does follow logically. It may possibly be an
|accidental (and maladaptive) result of the desire for a "normal" healthy
|mate, but I don't think it *has* to come from that, and I doubt that we
|could ever prove that it comes from one or another factor, so we can
|speculate but never really come to a conclusion on this.
I believe, based on the empirical track record of science, that scientists
will find out what, if any, mechanism control human behaviour, down to how
to treat various societal ills, like racism and nationalism.
|The danger of associating it with evolution is that many people think that
|evolution is an infallible mechanism for creating better and better
|organisms. But that isn't so. Evolution is a grand game of roulette.
|Sometimes good designs get wiped out by trivial accidents and bad designs
|flourish. On the whole evolution works, but only in a blind, stumbling way.
Teach them the scientific facts: Evolution Is A Mindless God.
>SNIP<
|But I kinda doubt that this selection mechanism is genetic though. I think
|it is more likely to be social. I, with my anglo genes, am most attracted
|to Indian and Asian features in women... so I don't think an evolutionary
|explanation is really compelling.
I believe in a more complicated mechanism. A simple radio-button behaviour
does not ring true, considering the weird nets of control DNA tends to result
in.
|>Racism and wish for longevity form the sides of he same coin, one of them
|>collectivistic (racism), the other individualistic (wish for longevity).
|>
|>I believe one could say the problem lies with collectivism, of which
|>racism forms just a small part.
|
|Your point here eludes me completely, I'm sorry.
|I don't understand the connection you are trying to find between racism and
|collectivism, or even the opposition between those two and individualism
|and longevity.
Racism is a meme complex, a belief system, which binds its believers into a
single borganism just like other collectivis memes. It even contains the
virulent "Thou should distribute the truth to the unbelievers." and "Beware
of the Evil Wrongdoers!" memes.
Point: Collectivism tends to turn off rational thinking.
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