Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to You know, this is why I worry that Western society is doomed.

Leftist self-lobotomy
Adam — (archived)

Hi Tom

The relativistic moralists who sow the seeds of confusion are stuck in an out-moded mind-set, that human beings are infinitely malleable and somehow freely seeking the best ends, however mistaken. It's a sad indictment of academia that they can't find any sort of moral agreement on issues like freedom and the like - they've created a self-justifying philosophical loop that gives us things like deconstruction and political correctness which effectively paralyse the Left into utter confusion.

A realistic Leftism, based on evolutionary psychology, is about the only thing which has a chance of pulling them out of their self-created vacuity. Robert Heinlein once said the only objective basis for morals comes from evolutionary imperatives because they're what we all have in common. Makes a lot of sense, but the Left has very little understanding of biology and even less appreciation of human roboticism. We're biomachines first, and reasoning creatures second - even when we don't admit it to ourselves.

What drives Bin Laden and his kin is the dominance drive, as channelled into a particularly successful self-justifying meme-plex, Islam. Any religion that commands the death of its opponents, inside and outside the fold, usually does fairly well. Why? Because it hooks into two drives - self-preservation (obviously) and, less obviously, our urge to punish "defectors" from the social game. But the success only comes through having an Alpha figure that serves as an example - a blood-thirsty sabre-swinging Arab super-warrior works quite well.

That the Left have conveniently overlooked this driving idea behind Islam is the chief cause of their ineffectual response. To their credit they see suffering and imagine that's all that matters, not realising that even soldiers suffer and still want to put a bullet through your head if ordered to.

Adam

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