…And this is why I have foolishly chosen to discuss the taboos of genetic behavior, and ethnic and sexual norms; not to chain people to stereotypes, but to free us all from them. We must recognize our genetic tendencies in order to design around them, and past them; as Bertolt Brecht noted, “When there are obstacles, the shortest distance between two points is a crooked line.”
All living things produce too many babies, and not all of them can survive; it’s the Law of Universal Superfecundity. Humans are not exempt.
Too often, gender equity pursues a masculine success of domination and pointless ambition, ironically making ‘equal rights’ offensively anti-egalitarian.
Sexual Genetics: differences between boys and girls exist, on average. Insisting that the differences are universal, or that they are nonexistent, are both unjust.
Temporary insanity affects us all, at stages in our lives and at points in our day. It is an example of how we struggle against our genetic behaviors.
Lebanese Genetics sounds boring, but the Lebanese may be the most stereotypical ethnic group around, an inheritance from the Phoenicians.
In hawk-dove, we are presented with a disturbing situation. We ask, Who is better, hawks or doves, war mongers or peace makers? Who ultimately wins? And the analysis is disturbing: neither does, because both do.
I’m back. Where I’ve been, and where we’re going.
We tell ourselves, and others, one reason for why we do things, but our choices often betray other, more convincing reasons. Sometimes the secondary reason helps us see morality as survival. This is a serialization from my book, Happiness: A Physician/Biologist Looks at Life. To see the Table of Contents and the dust jacket blurb, … [Read more…]
We think of ourselves as logical rational beings, who make purely intellectual decisions. But consider that we think that our minds control our bodies when sometimes, it’s the other way around.