[Grovenet] The Problem with Electing Authoritarian Conservatives

[Walt Wentz]

Odd, I ran across news of that research on the BBC a few weeks ago, 
but it never even occurred to me to connect the two ideas! Thanks, 
Geri!
Walt

>Walt, have you heard/read anything about the "startle response" 
>being related to one's politics? Experts have been thinking and 
>wondering about genetic traits which maybe influence one's politics 
>...  I'd heard about this a month or two ago, and here are a couple 
>articles you and others may find interesting, whether taken 
>seriously or not.
>
>http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/6065412.html
>
>http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1842523,00.html
>
>
>Geri
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Walt Wentz" <waltw at teleport.com>
>To: "Forest Grove local interests list" <grovenet at rdrop.com>
>Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 9:24 AM
>Subject: Re: [Grovenet] The Problem with Electing Authoritarian Conservatives
>
>
>>  Interesting stuff-- but one wonders, where does the authoritarian
>>  streak ultimately come from? Yes, absolutist family upbringing does
>>  produce absolutist children, as Lakoff pointed out in "Don't Think of
>>  an Elephant," but what of those people who rebel against narrow
>>  family strictures and grow up open-minded, or those from open-minded
>>  and tolerant families who retreat into absolutism? Barring inborn
>>  impulses, shouldn't exposure to the wider, more varied world slowly
>>  erode the authoritarian percentage of the population, despite the
>>  most desperate efforts of intolerant parents, xenophobic churches and
>>  authoritarian leaders?
>>  Some years ago, a few anthropological researchers were proposing that
>>  violent and amoral types were born as a fixed percentage of the
>>  population, generally becoming criminals unless their violent
>>  tendencies were harnessed or modified by the family or social
>>  environment, and that this fixed genetic fraction was a once useful
>>  but now destructive trait inherited from our monkey-band past,
>>  formerly serving the purpose of providing a pool of aggressive
>>  fighters to defend the band's territory.
>>  Is it possible that the authoritarian personality is another outdated
>>  monkey-band trait, originally useful in producing a reservoir of
>>  subservient and unquestioning "beta" apes to enforce the authority of
>>  whatever "alpha" ape took command of the band?
>>  (Of course, one does not see this exact social organization in
>>  chimpanzees or gorillas today, but then the great apes are highly
>>  evolved from the old ancestral primate stock).
>>  All this is mere speculation on my part, of course, but could it be
>>  that we are going to be stuck with a fixed genetic percentage of
>>  authoritarian xenophobes for as long as the race lasts, despite our
>>  most determined efforts at enlightenment and tolerance?
>>  Ook-ook, anyone?
>>  Walt
>>
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