I'd like to start The Lorenzo from Oz drinking game: Take a shot every time you read the words "transferring of risks away from childrearing and resources to childrearing"
Reading this activated an alarm in the back of my head: if I agree to readily with anything then I have to scrutinize the references closely and make a best effort to account for my own biases. Then I got to the end and went through the extensive reference list, it checks out. This essay felt like coming up for air after swimming underwater.
We lucky few who live practically post-scarcity are not constrained by biology to nearly the same extent as our ancestors. That doesn't give us license to label biology as heresy when it's inconvenient to our aims. We should be able to acknowledge the role that environmental forces have played in human development while at the same time enabling and celebrating different approaches to human flourishing.
So all this time the "ruthless criticism of all that exists" turns out to be the power strategy of some weak yet crafty apes hoping to ascend to the top of the social pyramid by manipulation of various social effects, such as guilt, shame and that ultimate cattle prod, the thing we call "morality"? Smells like ressentiment to me!
This was an excellent essay, thanks and great job!
"There is a very strong argument that what makes Homo sapiens, Homo sapiens was the systematic killing of alpha males by teams of beta males."
Richard Wrangham makes a slightly different argument in The Goodness Paradox. What made Homo sapiens was the systematic killing of unco-operative males by teams of co-operative males. The guy who consistently took more than he contributed, who got into lots of stupid fights, who kept trying to get something going with another man's wife might go out with a hunting party and not come back.
This helped solve "the social problem": what is in the short-run self interest of an individual is often against the long-term interest of the group--and often against the long-term self-interest of the individual! So humans have a predilection for co-operation.
A good read, but adoption was always important in Christianity. The adoption of children abandoned to die in ancient Rome was a major reason for early church growth!
🇺🇸 now? See Family Law, and look under the Hood. In particular CPS (Child Protective Services). You’ll find human trafficking under the heading of adoption.
What can we say? MARKET.
The MARKET is determined by race, age, health of the Baby in question.
Once mama calls the Cops to settle an argument if there’s a child in the house CPS is involved, and there’s big money ($250K and up) for a healthy white baby.
That price dated by the way.
The authority of the Police and Judges does indeed smack of Patriarchy, but you gotta get real at some point. The MARKET demands no less.
This us well known here, not well publicized, so it didn’t happen...
These essays are remarkable and superb.
This is "Lorenzo Notes"; "Cliff Notes" fixed!
I'd like to start The Lorenzo from Oz drinking game: Take a shot every time you read the words "transferring of risks away from childrearing and resources to childrearing"
Reading this activated an alarm in the back of my head: if I agree to readily with anything then I have to scrutinize the references closely and make a best effort to account for my own biases. Then I got to the end and went through the extensive reference list, it checks out. This essay felt like coming up for air after swimming underwater.
We lucky few who live practically post-scarcity are not constrained by biology to nearly the same extent as our ancestors. That doesn't give us license to label biology as heresy when it's inconvenient to our aims. We should be able to acknowledge the role that environmental forces have played in human development while at the same time enabling and celebrating different approaches to human flourishing.
So all this time the "ruthless criticism of all that exists" turns out to be the power strategy of some weak yet crafty apes hoping to ascend to the top of the social pyramid by manipulation of various social effects, such as guilt, shame and that ultimate cattle prod, the thing we call "morality"? Smells like ressentiment to me!
This was an excellent essay, thanks and great job!
"There is a very strong argument that what makes Homo sapiens, Homo sapiens was the systematic killing of alpha males by teams of beta males."
Richard Wrangham makes a slightly different argument in The Goodness Paradox. What made Homo sapiens was the systematic killing of unco-operative males by teams of co-operative males. The guy who consistently took more than he contributed, who got into lots of stupid fights, who kept trying to get something going with another man's wife might go out with a hunting party and not come back.
This helped solve "the social problem": what is in the short-run self interest of an individual is often against the long-term interest of the group--and often against the long-term self-interest of the individual! So humans have a predilection for co-operation.
He will, sensibly enough, probably choose a pleasant coastal area in which to retire.
I inhabit the hot and humid inland.
You might advise your friend about the Philippines. The highlands feature moderate weather, and many people speak English.
If I had it to do over again....
Hello Lorenzo from Benjamin Cole, formerly of L.A. but now Thailand.
Your columns are peerless, and kudos to Helen Dale as well.
This is magnificent! I wish I could make it required reading for everyone I know!
The social corrosion and critique are features not bugs.
The point of these features to make us bugs.
IT IS “ literally a life-and-death issue” again so here we are 🤣
A good read, but adoption was always important in Christianity. The adoption of children abandoned to die in ancient Rome was a major reason for early church growth!
“Actual matriarchal societies? No.”
🇺🇸 now? See Family Law, and look under the Hood. In particular CPS (Child Protective Services). You’ll find human trafficking under the heading of adoption.
What can we say? MARKET.
The MARKET is determined by race, age, health of the Baby in question.
Once mama calls the Cops to settle an argument if there’s a child in the house CPS is involved, and there’s big money ($250K and up) for a healthy white baby.
That price dated by the way.
The authority of the Police and Judges does indeed smack of Patriarchy, but you gotta get real at some point. The MARKET demands no less.
This us well known here, not well publicized, so it didn’t happen...