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Re: [xmca] Thoughts on this



Carol, I was politicised in the days when Konrad Lorenz and Robert Ardrey were strutting their stuff and there has hardly been a time since when Nature has not been presented as the explanation for the imperfectibility of capitalism. When I read something like:
"A leading human origins researcher has come up with an idea that involves aggression between groups and the boom-bust cycles that have punctuated our spread into new environments."
even from the BBC Science Editor, and I have just turned from the News page where I read of Muslims beating up on US Embassies for allegedly insulting the Prophet and the efforts of the European Bank to rescue the world from a Depression, my warning bells are firing like crazy. So war betwqeen "groups" is in our Nature? So boom/bust cycles are really just a part of progress? Yeah, sure.

Andy


Carol Macdonald wrote:
The excerpt was from a report on a ongoing 5 day conference. It's the state of art thinking--that's why I posted it.
 
But I liked your response--tee hee!
 
Cx

On 16 September 2012 03:52, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net> wrote:
Who is dismissing "recent research"? What I am dismissing is a blatant journalistic effort to discover the causes of the human condition in the Nature - the modern name given to God. Of course the article was littered with bits of science, but bits of science cobbled together to fit an ideological template.

Andy

John Cripps Clark wrote:
Andy

Although Tattersall's speculation may not be a shining example, recent research in human evolution is far too interesting and important to dismiss as social darwinism. See for example:

Yong, E. Our hybrid origins. New Scientist, 211(2823), 34-38. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/georgian-bones-rewrite-story-of-human-evolution/3056682
http://theconversation.edu.au/new-fossils-confirm-diversity-was-the-rule-for-human-evolution-8760
http://theconversation.edu.au/sex-with-our-evolutionary-ancestors-proceed-with-caution-8923

Trying to apply this to our present condition is another matter.

John Cripps Clark


________________________________________
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] on behalf of Andy Blunden [ablunden@mira.net]
Sent: Sunday, 16 September 2012 11:36 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] Thoughts on this


Social Darwinism rides again. Take an ideological belief about human
society, transfer it to Nature and then declare that since Nature is
like this then so must human society, so stop wingeing and  get in the
bread line.

I prefer old Kropotkin:
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/kropotkin-peter/1902/mutual-aid/index.htm

Andy

Carol Macdonald wrote:
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19598980


   

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*Andy Blunden*
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts

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*Andy Blunden*
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts

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 Sessional teacher: Wits School of Languages
Honorary Research Fellow: Department of Linguistics, Unisa

 




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*Andy Blunden*
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/concepts
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