Thank you Niall, for a marvellous exposition, and so apposite as we witness this week, how a grand lie is told that the press promulgate while vital matters are eclipsed. So we have the great threat to our society of rampant antisemitism while the slaughter of innocents continues.
A case can be made that the 3 great poles of (Western) political thought also have parallels within individual psychology.
Dr McClaren, you have covered the Right quite well, in explaining it in terms of biochemistry.
From my social-science perspective, I called it simply "Hierarchy".
In short, the
Left is about Community;
Liberalism is about the Individual;
Right is about Hierarchy.
And we also have all of these 3 drives in all of us as well.
Left, community, is how in an ideal world we behave among our friends, sharing resources at need, or freely if we have too much.
Liberalism, Individualism, or 'Market' as Graeber described it, is how we treat fx the shopkeepers - it is not expected that we cheat each other, but nor is it be expected we get freebies. We are poles of individuality, with the '2 Golden Rules' at play between us. And, obviously, also the basis of all those modern human rights and 'freedoms'.
Right, hierarchy, is how you have described it very well, albeit taking it to the extreme for purposes of clear example.
Now, if Hierarchy can be seen as resulting from the biochemical effects of Testosterone, what can cause the other innate effects? Off the top of your head?
"Community" is probably related to oxytocin, which is a "feel nice and warm" hormone, as distinct from T which is "feel tough and dominant." Liberalism is "Don't feel anything, just calculate." Very roughly.
Thanks. So one of the things we need to do is promote the conditions that produce high levels of oxytocin, socially?
I'm not so sure about the write-off about liberalism, however. People do get VERY hot under the collar about freedom of speech, conscience, human rights, and assembly - all of which liberalism promotes from its philosophy.
Obviously, most start from their own POV (Too many end there as well); but liberal idealism also argues passionately about those things for others too, the classic "I may not agree with what you have to say; but I'll fight for you to have the right to express it" etc.
Or "Until we are all free, none of us are free", a left-liberalism position.
In fact, as you argued with Pascal, the 'Left' also falls to authoritarian dominance games.
It might, in classical political theory, be that liberalism can oppose authoritarianism's roots best.
Anarchism, liberalism's 'hardcore extreme', quite explicitly is opposed to the dominance effect of testosterone, fx.
So surely something so deeply ingrained, can also be based upon some biochemistry? But it's not my field, as I said.
Edit: after thinking on it more, I would say that the experience of Anarchist communities at their best, and the same with authentically democratic communities (Where everyone gets to speak, and decisions are unanimous etc), are indeed synonymous with the effects of oxytocin.
Which lead me also to the ancient insight that "Nature always creates as strong a counter-argument as argument" - the brakes are always as powerful as the accelerator; or Yin and Yang are always equal fx.
Which indicates that what we have now, and for the past 2000 years since the Romans, is a very deliberate cultural policy of selecting and rewarding the effects of testosterone.
Needless to point out the Romans were ridiculously patriarchal and violent; and were quite conscious about it too.
So the 'brake' on testosterone might be oxytocin?
I don't suppose it could be sprayed by an aerosol into the 'Corridors of Power'? :(
"Fascism should be called corporatism as it is the merger of corporate and government power." to quote Benito Mussolini. Oz is awash with lobbyists who have the power to depose prime ministers. Is it better anywhere else in the G7 ? Can the ethos of drug cartels or the mafia inform the human dynamic that appears to have migrated to the national sphere? Nations have sought from time immemorial to solve their overspending by plundering the vulnerable. This seems to be a problem of scale. Humans evolved to cooperate in groups of about 150. Jarod Diamond explains this well in his books, such as Collapse. Violence inflicted upon people at the micro level is a reflection of the ethos that permeates society as a whole. This is why the practice of psychiatry is intensely political. Corporate libertarianism is displacing neoliberalism in the west. Its arch proponents intend to transcend governments rendering them irrelevant or captive customers.
Thank you Niall, for a marvellous exposition, and so apposite as we witness this week, how a grand lie is told that the press promulgate while vital matters are eclipsed. So we have the great threat to our society of rampant antisemitism while the slaughter of innocents continues.
A case can be made that the 3 great poles of (Western) political thought also have parallels within individual psychology.
Dr McClaren, you have covered the Right quite well, in explaining it in terms of biochemistry.
From my social-science perspective, I called it simply "Hierarchy".
In short, the
Left is about Community;
Liberalism is about the Individual;
Right is about Hierarchy.
And we also have all of these 3 drives in all of us as well.
Left, community, is how in an ideal world we behave among our friends, sharing resources at need, or freely if we have too much.
Liberalism, Individualism, or 'Market' as Graeber described it, is how we treat fx the shopkeepers - it is not expected that we cheat each other, but nor is it be expected we get freebies. We are poles of individuality, with the '2 Golden Rules' at play between us. And, obviously, also the basis of all those modern human rights and 'freedoms'.
Right, hierarchy, is how you have described it very well, albeit taking it to the extreme for purposes of clear example.
Now, if Hierarchy can be seen as resulting from the biochemical effects of Testosterone, what can cause the other innate effects? Off the top of your head?
"Community" is probably related to oxytocin, which is a "feel nice and warm" hormone, as distinct from T which is "feel tough and dominant." Liberalism is "Don't feel anything, just calculate." Very roughly.
Thanks. So one of the things we need to do is promote the conditions that produce high levels of oxytocin, socially?
I'm not so sure about the write-off about liberalism, however. People do get VERY hot under the collar about freedom of speech, conscience, human rights, and assembly - all of which liberalism promotes from its philosophy.
Obviously, most start from their own POV (Too many end there as well); but liberal idealism also argues passionately about those things for others too, the classic "I may not agree with what you have to say; but I'll fight for you to have the right to express it" etc.
Or "Until we are all free, none of us are free", a left-liberalism position.
In fact, as you argued with Pascal, the 'Left' also falls to authoritarian dominance games.
It might, in classical political theory, be that liberalism can oppose authoritarianism's roots best.
Anarchism, liberalism's 'hardcore extreme', quite explicitly is opposed to the dominance effect of testosterone, fx.
So surely something so deeply ingrained, can also be based upon some biochemistry? But it's not my field, as I said.
Edit: after thinking on it more, I would say that the experience of Anarchist communities at their best, and the same with authentically democratic communities (Where everyone gets to speak, and decisions are unanimous etc), are indeed synonymous with the effects of oxytocin.
Which lead me also to the ancient insight that "Nature always creates as strong a counter-argument as argument" - the brakes are always as powerful as the accelerator; or Yin and Yang are always equal fx.
Which indicates that what we have now, and for the past 2000 years since the Romans, is a very deliberate cultural policy of selecting and rewarding the effects of testosterone.
Needless to point out the Romans were ridiculously patriarchal and violent; and were quite conscious about it too.
So the 'brake' on testosterone might be oxytocin?
I don't suppose it could be sprayed by an aerosol into the 'Corridors of Power'? :(
"Fascism should be called corporatism as it is the merger of corporate and government power." to quote Benito Mussolini. Oz is awash with lobbyists who have the power to depose prime ministers. Is it better anywhere else in the G7 ? Can the ethos of drug cartels or the mafia inform the human dynamic that appears to have migrated to the national sphere? Nations have sought from time immemorial to solve their overspending by plundering the vulnerable. This seems to be a problem of scale. Humans evolved to cooperate in groups of about 150. Jarod Diamond explains this well in his books, such as Collapse. Violence inflicted upon people at the micro level is a reflection of the ethos that permeates society as a whole. This is why the practice of psychiatry is intensely political. Corporate libertarianism is displacing neoliberalism in the west. Its arch proponents intend to transcend governments rendering them irrelevant or captive customers.