Societal trust had much to do with how governments responded to covid-19, and how citizens reacted.
Category: Sociality
In a world beset with global problems, nations are acting selfishly, thereby accelerating humanity’s demise. Immigration illustrates.
Wars bring societies together. Plagues pull them apart.
Men have long admired grandeur of their own making. Industrialization magnified the scale which could be attempted. As the hoary proverb goes: the bigger they are, the harder they fall.
Sociality is an exercise in communication. Nature inclines organisms to certain universal principles of social interchange, as researchers discovered when listening to jackasses talking.
Sexism is a problem irrespective of culture. A distinction between the genders emerges as a natural consequence of early cognitive development and upbringing.
Altruism is common in all kingdoms of life. From an evolutionary perspective, altruism arises when it confers a decided benefit to a population or individuals which practice it.
Freedom has a price. Does freedom have value?
One of the most telling indicators of future success seen in young children is impulse control. Sense of time defines the quality of our lives.
The only chance humanity has to save itself from self-extinction this century is to become more humane and better organized. It doesn’t look good.
Humans have always been migratory creatures. Since prehistory, communities empathically accepted immigrants. In post-modern times, men ridden with the mental disease of unbounded self-absorption have had no moral qualms in denying the desperate a home.
People are terribly gullible. In being gregarious creatures, congenital trust is a social lubricant. Cynicism is not a social grace. But the reason for innate trust runs much deeper.
Homosexuality has been a conundrum to evolutionary biologists who viewed behaviors from the peephole perspective of reproductive efficacy.
There is a decided statistical trend of Americans dying younger. The dynamics behind earlier mortality are manifold, but they solely owe to spiritual and practical ignorance.
As a treat on this most mystical of celebratory days, a history of Halloween.
Humans naturally lack the compassion of other animals and are more gullible. These ubiquitous inclinations go a long way in explaining our way of life, and why our self-extinction is assured.
As American president, Donald Trump has irrefutably had a detrimental effect on all fabrics influenced by him: economic, political, diplomatic, military, environmental, societal. Yet this pathological liar is still believed by a loyal following. This extreme example demonstrates a more pervasive point.
The devastation of climate change is becoming more pronounced. This progression will accelerate during the 2020’s, with deaths from extreme weather, as well as water and food shortages, rising precipitously. Yet the trend of governments worldwide largely paying lip service to the growing crisis will also continue. Here’s why.
Feudalism flourished in western Europe between the 5th and 12th centuries. Lacking a centralized government, local lords had their fiefs. Society was caste-bound: strictly structured hierarchically.
The culmination of urban and computerized civilization is a level of rudeness unsurpassed in human history, short of armed conflict. Nowadays, human capacity for empathy is snuffed between strangers when the nature of contact is a request, no matter how politely put, to be respectful of others.
The birth rate boomed across the industrialized countries that fought in the 2nd World War: Germany, Japan, Britain and the United States, though the birthing take-off took off at different times. The war’s only tangible victor, the U.S., had particularly fervent fertility. The boomer generation was not as prosperous as they were proliferant. But they made themselves so by readily robbing the next generation.
Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari (1644 – 1737) is generally considered the greatest artisan of stringed instruments. His violins – Stradivarius – are particularly legendary. Working wood to one’s will so that it produces a superb sound is an almost mystical craft. The choice of wood is crucial. Stradivari’s secret was having a friend in fungus.
Competition is an evolutionary artifact for humans, who would be much better off as a species practicing cooperation instead. The Olympics are an epitome of supposedly innocent competition. Those involved, as competitor or spectator, enjoy the rushes of adrenalin and dopamine involved without question. Along with shots of biochemical stimulation come concomitant emotional complexes: of assumption, pride, and suspicion.
The mirror mechanism is a part of intelligence systems; stimulated when an animal acts or observes another performing the same action. Many animals have mirror mechanisms, including birds and primates. The mechanism provides the basis for empathy, as well as driving status-seeking.