Jared Diamond has it back to front. < While I don’t think that our genetic coding could have significantly changed over the last 5,000 years, I do think that our self-understanding has developed at a breakneck speed. This has allowed us to move from hunter/gatherer societies to space explorers within an astoundingly short interval.>
Unless there's a difference in DNA, self-understanding can't develop much. No matter how long you try to get a chimp to self-understand, they are limited by their DNA.
The astounding progress is because of genetic filtration and the shift from tribal territorial alpha male dominance hierarchies of conquest to cooperation on bigger and bigger scales to globalisation now. Plus the resulting increase in population from a few million to a few billion which enables specialisation in millions of things, mass production and vast economies of scale, instead of each group scavenging for survival while fighting the neighbouring tribes.
Sure, as Jared said, weapons got better so tribes which worked on lack of cooperation and dominance hierarchies were wiped out as bigger and bigger tribes developed with better weapons. But sexual selection plays the main part. Women don't want knuckle-dragging morons who can't get the goods, even if they are tough Neanderthal guys built like a truck. Which isn't to say they want wimps either. Geek doesn't mean wimp. They are different genes.
Some Americans want to retreat to fortress American, drag up the drawbridge and make a large scale Albania/North Korea. What is needed is increased cooperation, not less. Nothing less than a NewUN is what's needed, with the USA part of it. Even Rumsfeld was on TV the other day saying more cooperation is needed. That's not rocket science.
Megalomania is fun, until things go wrong. Then it's death in a bunker, or being dragged out of one like Saddam.
Cooperation is the name of the game.
Mqurice |
