Who Will Tell the Story Around the Fire Tonight, 30
To Recap
We have a pretty good idea now how it likely began once our distant ancestors walked out of the forest and onto the savanna and began looking around. Oh yeah, it was survival of the fittest and the smartest and certainly the most observant and curious. It was trial and error, making mistakes and emulting the most successful among us when necessary.
It was never as simple as we first thought, going from hunter-gatherer to domesticating plants and animals to cities and “glorious” civilization. In fact, what we call civilization today may have to be seriously modified if we don’t want to create a very real planetary dystopia.
What we did (back then) was dabble in many different things and we experimented continually, and sometimes we decided to go “backward” because it was better than going forward. And that was all right.
Along the way we invented magical creation stories, confronted diseases and pandemics, killed each other, indulged comfortably in assorted varieties of slavery and generalized cruelty. But, like all animals, we also demonstrated affection, loyalty and protection.
We created clans and tribes, in-groups and out-groups, comfort zones and threat assessments. We got good at telling lies as well, probably a desirable survival mechanism. Of course, overlaying all of this was epigenetics, how behavior and environment can cause changes that affect the way our genes work. A lot can happen in millions of years or even thousands of years—and even in a generation. Don’t smoke, and don’t go hungry for long periods of time remains good advice.
The term “genocide” first appeared in 1944. It was invented by the Polish jurist Raphael Lemkin.
Let the Tale Be Told
Who gets to tell the story? I have no doubt that some character like Elon Musk thinks he probably always has the best story to tell. I suppose it’s why he spent some absurd amount of money to buy a social media company. Then we have Mr. Putin, the Russian sociopath, but let’s be fair, well liked by many people across the globe. He’s trying very hard to make sure there is only one story to tell.
The Limits of Lived Experience, an article in the NYT by Pamela Paul, asked the question. It’s the sort of subject matter that generally provokes strong opinions from all sides. Who is qualified to tell the particular story. In America certainly, until only recently, it was mainly white males that provided the “authentic” story of American Indians and virtually everyone else. See:
The Limits of 'Lived Experience'
It’s little wonder that we now have a backlash, for example, against talking about Critical Race Theory and transgendered folks; my god, other voices are demanding to be heard. That’s considered a threat to the established social order of things, a threat to the tribe.
Silly, oftentimes vacuous billionaires, may want to hustle space tourism, but those pesky genes still get in the way on planet Earth and cause problems for the non-masters-of-the-universe. The more things change, as they say, the more they stay the same.
If “culture is a conversation, not a monologue,” as Pamela Paul believes, then we have a long way to go in attempting to start a conversation, regardless of where one stands on the human ideological spectrum.
I Couldn’t Help Myself
We’re getting reasonably sophisticated in terms of understanding the physiological mechanisms, which is our immune system, and how our body fights against those pathogens that enter us, the microorganisms that can cause disease. But it’s human behavior that remains murky and less clear.
As far as I know the big five classes of personality traits still are (1) openness, (2) conscientiousness, (3) extroversion, (4) agreeableness and (5) neuroticism. On average, about 50% relates to genetics and 50% relates to environmental factors.
When we’re young, the environment generally has a greater impact. When we’re older and more independent our genes play a larger role. Certain behaviors, such as criminality for example, are heritable but only as side effects of genes that affect personality traits. There is a tendency of parents to pass on genes for particular environments.
You don’t have genes for addiction but you do have genes for impetuosity and risk taking, which in the right environmental circumstance could lead to addiction.
Genopolitics, as I’ve mentioned before, offers some tantalizing possibilities regarding how we think and act—and vote. In sex and orgasms the hormone oxytocin is released, often referred to as the “cuddle hormone.” It is believed that oxytocin may “smother” the amygdala response (amygdala an area of the brain that is critical to self awareness), and thus increase generosity, trust, etc. But conversely there is also the oposite response. The amygdala is the part of the brain that raises suspicion and increases fear to protect us from real danger.
Stop Acting Like That Right Now
“Because the behavioral immune system appears to have implications for social gregariousness, it is likely also to influence the size, shape and geometry of social networks.”
It seems to me that we’re going to need a far better understanding of ourselves if we have any hope for survival, and I’m speaking about all life and not merely the exclusive continuance of Homo sapiens, a species that needs a far lower profile on planet Earth in so may ways.
Think of the behavioral immune system as the first line of defense against pathogens. For an overview see,
The idea of course is to react to threats before we have to rely on the physiological mechanisms, before the “pathogens” enter our body. Noxious odors, cultural differences, blemishes, unfamiliar appearances, etc can all be part of our behavioral immune response.
Of course, these factors are only “imperfectly” correlated with actual infection. What are the relations between pathogen prevalence and cultural differences? Finally, is it possible that the behavioral immune system might in fact affect the functioning of the real immune system? So much to discover and decreasing time to do it.
One of the most obvious areas today where our behavioral immune system reaches back into our past is immigration, which triggers responses across the planet regarding the “other,” which—of course—guarantees manipulation by “clan” leaders around the globe. Now imagine ever worsening climate change and collapsing economic and political systems. You’re in a struggle like it or not. There is no fool on a white horse or a billion dollars in the bank coming to your rescue.