SOCIETY AT RISK

According to the Random House Dictionary, (2015) evolutionary psychology is the branch of psychology that studies the mental adaptations of humans to a changing environment, especially differences in behavior, cognition, and brain structure. Somehow, this definition seems to fall short. Most biologists understand there is an uninterrupted line extending from the big bang to walking talking thinking man. This span of time includes a long period of pre-organism development extending to myriad simple one cell organisms and from there branches off into a sophisticated multicellular organism, which implies everything about us including out mental capabilities has a background; it comes from somewhere. We look at animals and see a similarity in patterns of behavior. Of course, the word ‘animal’ covers a lot of territories. Scientists find certain uninterrupted lines of behaviors even in the simplest most primitive animals. Of course, this depends on how we define behavior. With the realization that mental activity is chemical, we come to realize such things as purpose, choice, or decisions are chemical. We realize the most remarkable thing of all is that we are survivors of three and one-half billion years of the continuity of behavior; raw chemical behavior fading into sophisticated mental behavior. Biologist Charles Darwin inspired philosopher Herbert Spencer to condense all of this to “survival of the fittest”. Some of us marvel at our social behavior while at the same time try to understand why we behave as we do: we love, marry, hate, fight, kill each other in wars, fight to survive, and care for some but not others. We do not look at chickens as being mental giants yet they establish a political system when establish a pecking order as do wolves. We tear apart society on racial grounds while we accept the idea of a flock of ducks all of the same species but fail to acknowledge the part xenophobia plays in this form of animal behavior. All of these things would be predictable except for one thing, which is our humanization. If we put a group of people or a group of animals together in a room, they will organize. Both the people and the animals will organize themselves into leaders and followers based on physical strength. Of course, we have to interject the innate differences such as gender; in some species, the male is dominant in other it is the female that is dominant. The difference between animals and people becomes evident over time; the smartest people will figure out a way to becoming the leaders. Nonetheless, an element of desire that has to couple with intelligence just as strength has to couple with a desire to achieve leadership. When I look at these things in terms or evolutionary psychology, I see a general phenomenon developing; it is a replacement of biological correctness with what more and more we judge to be ethical. I attribute it our humanization. Human male leadership dominance is obvious from the genetic or Darwinian point of view; however, female dominance is coming into play. In the minds of some, this is causing great problems in terms of family structure, for example. How many times have you heard conservatives refer to the loss of family structure? They see orderly family structure as a man, an obedient wife, and obedient children. Many people see hierarchy dominance, or biological peck-order as something based on “strength”, in modern politics. They accept the idea that money is a strength, but that is as far as they seem to be willing to modernize their thinking, which is what voter suppression is all about. Poor people should have no right to vote. In colonial America, property owners had the right to vote before federalization and leaders recognized the overabundance of free land created a society of many small farmers who had land but no money, which gave rise to ethics of one-man-one-vote. The great population increase and wealth redistribution by salaries and taxes have changed that dramatically. We are seeing the “unfit to survive” among us survive, which include the sick, injured, and aged. Our mentality is overtaking our biology. Again, how many timers have you heard conservatives complain about welfare? Ayn Rand political bases her entire philosophy on this one simplistic idea; according to her, if you are not productive in society you do not count. I do not want to be over dramatic; however, we are going to have to understand the value of survival of the fittest, which means understanding evolutionary psychology, before we can cope with the drastic changes taking place in society if we are to survive as a species. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated