Eureka! We discover The LINK between religion, faith, god and primate aggression....
"It put THE FEAR OF GOD in him."
"FEAR is your only god" (slogan on a Rage Against the Machine rock-band t-shirt)
Here at PrimateInfanticide we have picked on the research and observations of Jane Goodall's primate research, hours upon thousands of hours spent in the jungle with chimpanzee troupes researching the basic social structure of the troupe. And the parrallels with human society are unmistakable: the most aggressive yet cunning males become the alpha males of the troupe, dependendent not just on sheer strength and agression, but on the ability to form alliances as well - sometimes alliances of sheer coercion, but alliances nonetheless.
The rest of the troupe, faced with an alpha male secure in his primacy, must deal with their leader even when his reign is based primarily on aggression and the threat of violence. "Dealing" with an aggressive alpha usually means some form of passivity or submission - low posture, stooping, surrendering prime eating space or even food items, etc. The parrallels with human society are unmistakable: in human society the leadership regimes are very much made of aggressive alpha males who control the populace through alliances, usually alliances of their military or security forces, although in "civilized" democracies ostensibly alliances of like-minded political groups. The primate models of submission and passivity are not only reflected in human power and political body-language (i.e. bowing before kings and royalty), but indeed are THE MODELS of Religious devotion: bowing to the diety or iconography of the diety(s); an announced an proclaimed passivity to "the will of God", a devotion to "follow God" with the emphasis on the word "FOLLOW."
Clearly, primate behavior - chimpanzee behavior in the wild - has all the rudimentary characteristics of "advanced" or "CIVILIZED" human behavior, with both instantaneous and premeditated assessments of the role of the individual in relation to the power of the alphas at the pinacle of group power and influence. For example, in overthrowing an alpha male subordinate males in a chimpanzee troupe may spend time and effort planning, practising, and finally working up to the actual overthrow.
So much for our theoretical linkage of primate aggression and alpha dominance to the similar behaviors in human society.
Recently, internet commentaries and articles have discussed the impact of FEAR in our current political equation. Arianna Huffington has written several gossipy editorials on "FEARLESSNESS," and Thom Hartman has also delved into the topic of FEAR in his Air America Radio show.
Here is the word "fear" in one Hartman article, a review of a book on the roots of neo-con imperialism and the politics that sustain it, "Leo Strauss and the American Right" by Shadia B. Drury
http://www.buzzflash.com/hartmann/05/08/har05008.html
<< They [Straussian neocons] also determined that PEOPPLE MUST LIVE IN CONSTANT FEAR, and that a religion - any religion so long as it was monotheistic, PATRIARCHIAL, HEIRARCHICAL, and **AUTHORITARIAN** - must be used to "opiate" (to paraphrase both Strauss and Marx) the people.
The cynical neocon manipulation of Americans was done for the very best of reasons. After all, the ends - in their minds - justified just about any means, including the death of hundreds of thousands of people. All this brought about the ultimate irony: Strauss's fear of Nazism - and his misunderstanding of Nazism - led him and his followers to repeat many of the philosophical and political errors of the Nazis.
To understand how America got here, read Shadia Drury's brilliant book, "Leo Strauss and the American Right." Once you have, the path back to democracy will become much more clear. >>
In an EVEN MORE IMPORTANT radio commentary, Hartman (we believe it was) discussed how the response of fear DROWNS OUT or SUPPRESSES higher, deeper, more congitive thinking. When the FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT impulse kicks in, flooding the body with adrenalin in order to facilitate a rapid, energetic animal response to an immediate physical threat, all other thoughts are pushed from the mind. When you are being chased by a dog or person, you are not thinking about your next business deal.
Worse than the FEAR of "fight-or-flight" drowning out deliberative reasoning in an immediate threat environment, over time a continued habituation to fear also DROWNS OUT long-term mental development. Researchers have been able to determine that not only do certain regions of the brain respond almost exclusively to fear-based emotions, but the physiological resources given to those regions comes at the expense of "higher" or more cognitive parts of the brain.
OVER A SUFFICIENTLY LONG PERIOD OF TIME, the higher, cognitive areas will not even develop to their full extent. In a person, that would mean that primitive, reaction-based responses to daily life would tend to dominate over deeper, intuitive thinking.
Thus the passions of the mob, the instinct to fight, the tendency for male dominance in society and in an individual (eg., rape, denying a victim the right to say "no") are exhibited not only at the "low," rogue, or even criminal level... but FEAR OF THE DOMINANT MALE is THE distinguising feature of not only political leadership, but OF RELIGION as well.
"FEAR is your only god" (slogan on a Rage Against the Machine rock-band t-shirt)
Here at PrimateInfanticide we have picked on the research and observations of Jane Goodall's primate research, hours upon thousands of hours spent in the jungle with chimpanzee troupes researching the basic social structure of the troupe. And the parrallels with human society are unmistakable: the most aggressive yet cunning males become the alpha males of the troupe, dependendent not just on sheer strength and agression, but on the ability to form alliances as well - sometimes alliances of sheer coercion, but alliances nonetheless.
The rest of the troupe, faced with an alpha male secure in his primacy, must deal with their leader even when his reign is based primarily on aggression and the threat of violence. "Dealing" with an aggressive alpha usually means some form of passivity or submission - low posture, stooping, surrendering prime eating space or even food items, etc. The parrallels with human society are unmistakable: in human society the leadership regimes are very much made of aggressive alpha males who control the populace through alliances, usually alliances of their military or security forces, although in "civilized" democracies ostensibly alliances of like-minded political groups. The primate models of submission and passivity are not only reflected in human power and political body-language (i.e. bowing before kings and royalty), but indeed are THE MODELS of Religious devotion: bowing to the diety or iconography of the diety(s); an announced an proclaimed passivity to "the will of God", a devotion to "follow God" with the emphasis on the word "FOLLOW."
Clearly, primate behavior - chimpanzee behavior in the wild - has all the rudimentary characteristics of "advanced" or "CIVILIZED" human behavior, with both instantaneous and premeditated assessments of the role of the individual in relation to the power of the alphas at the pinacle of group power and influence. For example, in overthrowing an alpha male subordinate males in a chimpanzee troupe may spend time and effort planning, practising, and finally working up to the actual overthrow.
So much for our theoretical linkage of primate aggression and alpha dominance to the similar behaviors in human society.
Recently, internet commentaries and articles have discussed the impact of FEAR in our current political equation. Arianna Huffington has written several gossipy editorials on "FEARLESSNESS," and Thom Hartman has also delved into the topic of FEAR in his Air America Radio show.
Here is the word "fear" in one Hartman article, a review of a book on the roots of neo-con imperialism and the politics that sustain it, "Leo Strauss and the American Right" by Shadia B. Drury
http://www.buzzflash.com/hartmann/05/08/har05008.html
<< They [Straussian neocons] also determined that PEOPPLE MUST LIVE IN CONSTANT FEAR, and that a religion - any religion so long as it was monotheistic, PATRIARCHIAL, HEIRARCHICAL, and **AUTHORITARIAN** - must be used to "opiate" (to paraphrase both Strauss and Marx) the people.
The cynical neocon manipulation of Americans was done for the very best of reasons. After all, the ends - in their minds - justified just about any means, including the death of hundreds of thousands of people. All this brought about the ultimate irony: Strauss's fear of Nazism - and his misunderstanding of Nazism - led him and his followers to repeat many of the philosophical and political errors of the Nazis.
To understand how America got here, read Shadia Drury's brilliant book, "Leo Strauss and the American Right." Once you have, the path back to democracy will become much more clear. >>
In an EVEN MORE IMPORTANT radio commentary, Hartman (we believe it was) discussed how the response of fear DROWNS OUT or SUPPRESSES higher, deeper, more congitive thinking. When the FIGHT-OR-FLIGHT impulse kicks in, flooding the body with adrenalin in order to facilitate a rapid, energetic animal response to an immediate physical threat, all other thoughts are pushed from the mind. When you are being chased by a dog or person, you are not thinking about your next business deal.
Worse than the FEAR of "fight-or-flight" drowning out deliberative reasoning in an immediate threat environment, over time a continued habituation to fear also DROWNS OUT long-term mental development. Researchers have been able to determine that not only do certain regions of the brain respond almost exclusively to fear-based emotions, but the physiological resources given to those regions comes at the expense of "higher" or more cognitive parts of the brain.
OVER A SUFFICIENTLY LONG PERIOD OF TIME, the higher, cognitive areas will not even develop to their full extent. In a person, that would mean that primitive, reaction-based responses to daily life would tend to dominate over deeper, intuitive thinking.
Thus the passions of the mob, the instinct to fight, the tendency for male dominance in society and in an individual (eg., rape, denying a victim the right to say "no") are exhibited not only at the "low," rogue, or even criminal level... but FEAR OF THE DOMINANT MALE is THE distinguising feature of not only political leadership, but OF RELIGION as well.
posted by verifi at 6:33 AM
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