>From: Ed Weick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Some on this list have suggested that capitalism is madness. I don't
agree.
>Capitalism is something that is very deeply entrenched in our culture and,
>increasingly, in global culture. It is a product of our culture. But our
I go further than that Ed, capitalism fits OUR KIND OF ANIMAL.
The key to solving our collective problem lies in understanding
human behavior. The best "scientific" explanations of human behavior
are to be found in the discipline of Evolutionary Psychology.
EVOLUTIONARY SCIENCE
Evolution is the complex of processes by which living organisms
originated on earth and have been diversified and modified
through sustained changes in form and function. The earliest
known fossil organisms are single-celled forms resembling modern
bacteria; they date from about 3.4 billion years ago. Many of the
evolving organisms have become extinct (e.g., the dinosaurs), but
some have developed into the present fauna and flora of the
world. Extinction and diversification continue today.
Charles Darwin's ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES (1859), is a landmark in
human understanding of nature. Darwin noted that while offspring
inherit a resemblance to their parents, they are not identical
to them. He further noted that some of the differences between
offspring and parents were not due solely to the environment but
were themselves often inheritable.
The new and emerging field of "evolutionary psychology" looks at
the mind as "it," asks "how does it work?", and discovers organic
design and functional purpose. Evolutionary psychologists seek
to understand the human mind by understanding the evolutionary
process that designed it. To do this, they engage in a kind of
reverse-engineering, trying to piece together how the minds we
have today evolved little by little through the process of
natural selection. They are not interested in the competition
between species, but rather the competition between genes within
the human species.
Natural selection creates new traits and adaptations in a species
by putting genes through a process of trial and error. New genes
arise in an individual organism by chance mutation. If a new
gene produces a trait that decreases the organism's chances of
reproduction, that gene, and the trait it produces, will not be
passed on. This is the fate of the vast majority of genetic
mutations.
However, if a new gene produces a trait that makes the host
organism more effective in reproduction, this gene will be
"selected," that is, passed on to the next generation. In this
manner, highly successful genes and traits spread throughout the
species, gradually overtaking "competing" genes and eventually
becoming "species-typical" traits.
The fundamental theorem upon which evolutionary psychology is
based is that behavior (just like anatomy and physiology) is in
large part inherited and that every organism acts (consciously
or not) to enhance its inclusive fitness -- to increase the
frequency and distribution of its selfish genes in future
generations. And those genes exist not only in the individual but
in his or her identical twin (100%), siblings (on average, 50%),
cousins (on average, 25%) and so on down the kinship line. (Thus,
aid to and feelings for relatives makes evolutionary sense.)
One of the most important points to keep in mind in thinking
about evolutionary psychology is that all mental mechanisms were
evolved in and designed for a specific social and environmental
setting -- small bands of hunter-gatherer families who roamed
the savanna planes of the Pleistocene era, 2 million to 10,000
years ago. The mental mechanisms we inherit from our ancestors
are therefore not necessarily adaptive to today's environment.
The modern two-year-old who recoils in fear from a moth will
blindly run into on-coming traffic. Fear of insects is automatic,
but parents have to work hard to teach their children to avoid
speeding cars because that threat didn't exist in our
evolutionary past.
This revision and extension of Darwinian evolution, from
"survival of the fittest" to inclusive fitness, was worked out
primarily by George Williams (in the US) and by William Hamilton
and John Maynard Smith (in the UK) in the 1960s, with some
clever twists added by Robert Trivers (in the US) in the 1970s.
[ Much of the forgoing was just cut and paste from:
http://www.skeptic.com/04.1.miele-immoral.html
http://weber.ucsd.edu/~dlane/evomed.html ]
Self-deception contributes to survival by making us better
liars! In love, business, and politics, sincerity is everything.
If you can fake that, you've got it made.
[ http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/primer.htm
http://www.clark.net/pub/wright/toc.htm
http://www.a3.com/myself/ravenpap.htm ]
OCKHAM'S RAZOR
According to a rule in science and philosophy called "Ockham's
Razor", the simplest of two or more competing theories is
preferable and that an explanation for unknown phenomena
should first be attempted in terms of what is already known.
Evolutionary science provides the simplest explanation of human
behavior that fits the physical facts.
People, like all animals, were optimized by evolution to put
their genes into the next generation. Those strains of humans
that were not so optimized, are no longer here.
Three of the most important social characteristics that allow
people to put their genes into the next generation are:
exploitation (making the best use of something -- including
other people), lying (I love you, so let's go to bed), and
self-deception .
Exploitation and lying contributed to human survival for
millions of years, self-deception for about 40,000 years.
CAPITALISM
I do not see capitalism as some alien system that was imposed
on a population of naturally-sustainable animals (although
these animals can be "socialized" into becoming sustainable).
Instead, I see capitalism and corporations as extensions of
our genetic propensities to EXPLOIT (make the best use of
something: profit) and LIE (meant to give a wrong impression:
advertise).
OUR KIND OF ANIMAL
For millions of years, humans LIVED the Tragedy of the Commons.
Hunter gatherers exploited an area -- literally ATE themselves
out of an area -- and then moved to a new one. That's just
the kind animal they were -- that's just what they did.
Modern hunter gatherers, such as the !Kung bushmen, still do:
"As one might expect, the bushmen prefer to collect the
desirable foods that are closest to the water supply. They
occupy a camp for a period of weeks and literally eat their
way out of it. For example, they often camp in the nut forests
and exhaust the nuts within a 1.6 km radius during the first
week of occupation, within a 3.2 km radius the second week,
and within a 4.8 km radius the third week." (Lee, 1969, cited
in Pimentel, 1996)
Humans adopted settled agriculture ONLY about 12,000 years ago.
In other words, humans are still evolved and optimized as hunter
gatherers and have simply not had enough time to evolve and adapt
for survival at present (and expected) population densities like,
say, termites.
It's neither good nor bad, that's just the kind of animal we are.
Capitalism fits OUR KIND OF ANIMAL.
Jay
