RE: [Paddlewise] Natural Selection at Work

If there weren't tribes we would have to create them. Teen gangs and kayak
clubs come to mind. I'm sure if you look around you will notice them
everywhere. You don't think corporations would exploit this need, do you?



Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:11:48 -0800
Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Natural Selection at Work
From: crjungers_at_gmail.com
To: marinerkayaks_at_msn.com
CC: paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net

On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 2:34 AM, MATT MARINER BROZE <marinerkayaks_at_msn.com>
wrote:



If boys weren't that bloody stupid (risk taking) that might also make their
taking of risks in the future to save even a close relative much less likely.
If boys weren't both genetically (and educationally) programmed to take risks
we would have a lot better chance of putting and end to war though. Stock
markets would be less interesting too.


I have to admit that I did not think through the situation as deeply as Matt
has. His remarks about tribal influences are interesting. I've long thought
that one of the strong points of American (or any "new world") culture is that
we broke so many tribal ties when our ancestors moved away from their old ties
and then, again, out of the cultural ghettos they had naturally gravitated
towards when they arrived (in the Americas or the antipodes or wherever). It
was hard to keep old hatreds going without constant reinforcement. My mother
told me stories of scandalizing her parents by being friends with a girl whose
parents were Italian. It was apparently quite daring then but seemed silly at
a time in my life when Annette Funicello was my idea of teen beauty.

My daughter's adoption of a half-black baby with a gorgeous tan and long
eyelashes and curly brown hair has also made me re-think tribalism on the
family level (which is probably the basis of tribalism anyway). I suspect that
the idea of "survival of the fittest" has as much to do with cultural
evolution as it does with physical evolution (at least in hominids).

This forum is an exciting one for illustrating the various approaches towards
taking risks. We are probably all more willing to take some risks than most of
the population (wherever we live) but even within our subset there is
considerable variation (witness the PFD debate).

Craig Jungers
Moses Lake, WA
www.nwkayaking.net
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