> Not to suggest I believe in a casual relationship in the opposite direction
Ha! Love it. Pinker's Better Angels read in reverse:
We get progressively less wealthy and civilized, getting ever-more violent all the while. In the limit, we're all at "zero possessions" maximal equality grubbing in the dirt for wildebeests and tubers, and a full third of men die by violence, in that Hobbesian unceasing "warre of all against all."
But at least we *understood* that world, and the environment and way of life directly aligned with our natural drives and inclinations! It took a lot of time and technological progress for Western mores to win out, witness the many "going back to the native american way of life" examples of choosing between the two ways of life while that was still an option, almost none of which were counterbalanced by the reverse.
Is it REALLY so bad to be a hunter gatherer with a 33% chance of violent death, and a ~50% chance of death by infection by age 50, if I could hunt a mean wildebeest and have 3 or 4 wives over 20-30 years and a passel of kids in the meantime? I mean, I'd sure take that over eking out 20 additional years in a nursing home.
> Not to suggest I believe in a casual relationship in the opposite direction
Ha! Love it. Pinker's Better Angels read in reverse:
We get progressively less wealthy and civilized, getting ever-more violent all the while. In the limit, we're all at "zero possessions" maximal equality grubbing in the dirt for wildebeests and tubers, and a full third of men die by violence, in that Hobbesian unceasing "warre of all against all."
But at least we *understood* that world, and the environment and way of life directly aligned with our natural drives and inclinations! It took a lot of time and technological progress for Western mores to win out, witness the many "going back to the native american way of life" examples of choosing between the two ways of life while that was still an option, almost none of which were counterbalanced by the reverse.
Is it REALLY so bad to be a hunter gatherer with a 33% chance of violent death, and a ~50% chance of death by infection by age 50, if I could hunt a mean wildebeest and have 3 or 4 wives over 20-30 years and a passel of kids in the meantime? I mean, I'd sure take that over eking out 20 additional years in a nursing home.