The most important insight to be gained from human behaviour: not just men will be losers

In response to a Sunday Oberver leader, "Men are losers", on some research into human behaviour

Link to article and thread at The Guardian.

The most important insight to be gained from such observations is that man (and woman) ARE animals - "prime apes", to be more precise, and if you will excuse the pun - whose behaviour evolved over millions of years to serve individuals and their family groups in the struggle for survival and advantage in the "natural environment" (which included other, rival, groups of humans) under VERY different circumstances to those we life in - and CONTINUE to struggle for survival and advantage - today.

These environmental circumstances have not simply changed, but been transposed, from the natural environment to an artificial "socio-economic environment", where we now struggle for survival and advantage in an economy that has developed and been honed to take quite effective advantage of man's animal nature (our animal fears, desires, competitiveness, etc).

This is why be persist in giving priority to economics (the household of man in the artificial, "socio-economic environment"), instead of to ecology (the household of our planet in the natural environment), when it is obvious (were we not blinded by our total immersion in and dependency on the former) that human survival NOW demands the opposite.

Unless we quickly open our eyes to this reality, not just men, but our whole civilisation will be losers.

My homepage: http://www.spaceship-earth.org

To: Comment at the Guardian Re: The most important insight to be gained from human behaviour Date: Sunday 26 November 06

In response to a Sunday Oberver leader, "Men are losers", on some research into human behaviour Link to article and thread at The Guardian. The most important insight to be gained from such observations is that man (and woman) ARE animals - "prime apes", to be more precise, and if you will excuse the pun - whose behaviour evolved over millions of years to serve individuals and their family groups in the struggle for survival and advantage in the "natural environment" (which included other, rival, groups of humans) under VERY different circumstances to those we life in - and CONTINUE to struggle for survival and advantage - today. These environmental circumstances have not simply changed, but been transposed, from the natural environment to an artificial "socio-economic environment", where we now struggle for survival and advantage in an economy that has developed and been honed to take quite effective advantage of man's animal nature (our animal fears, desires, competitiveness, etc). This is why be persist in giving priority to economics (the household of man in the artificial, "socio-economic environment"), instead of to ecology (the household of our planet in the natural environment), when it is obvious (were we not blinded by our total immersion in and dependency on the former) that human survival NOW demands the opposite. Unless we quickly open our eyes to this reality, not just men, but our whole civilisation will be losers. My homepage: http://www.spaceship-earth.org