Humans act in co-operative ways, not dominant conquest ways.
Mqurice,
I must disagree with half of this point. I think that humans do act in “dominant” and “conquest” ways. Both of these traits were required by our more primitive ancestors. I’m sure that you will find that most tribes throughout the world have dominant leaders who either help or exploit the followers. The dominance aspect of our behavior is related to the level of testosterone and physical size. This is usually displayed by mammals during the rutting season by the males. And speaking of males, I have an evolving theory: in the US the kids with the highest level of testosterone play football, next basketball, then baseball, and so on down the line. Obviously, physical size also plays a critical roll when moving on to college and professional sports. The kids with the lowest level of testosterone become high-tech whizzes and college professors.
Football players can “dominate” by physical intimidation or menacing behavior. However, when someone cannot control their testosterone-driven behaviors, they typically end up in jail. This is where we have to keep our toughest “tough guys.” Also, steroid overuse causes some unbecoming behavior at times for understandable reasons. If we don’t develop means to control our brain chemistry, we can easily develop socially unacceptable tendencies that show up on the evening news. Sometimes tumors overwhelm the nervous system and for a lucky few, there’s help.
In my most cynical moments, I think that politicians don’t have the physical or mental capabilities for most jobs (outside of lawyering); however, they do have the ability to charm and manipulate. These are also important survival skills in tribal life, which is probably why we all still have these traits to different degrees. Imagine a sales or marketing job that only involved being friendly and schmoozing, and being well paid (bribed) for it. |
