tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2197051945822486684.post958379926002672214..comments2024-03-29T05:05:01.273+11:00Comments on Thinking Out Aloud: The persistence of (belief in) socialismLorenzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00305933404442191098noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2197051945822486684.post-68259542294122310602017-10-03T11:50:59.522+11:002017-10-03T11:50:59.522+11:00Not much of a believer in "instinct" in ...Not much of a believer in "instinct" in humans, but that socialism appeals to deep structures (or, at least specific manifestations thereof) in our evolved cognitive architecture may well be true.Lorenzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00305933404442191098noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2197051945822486684.post-89636218013469593762017-09-29T09:05:52.940+10:002017-09-29T09:05:52.940+10:00Now what was the odds that someone else was going ...Now what was the odds that someone else was going to publish an evolutionary psychology - based conjecture at exactly the same time! At least you have the guts to call it that! I realize I might have rather dishonestly avoided the term to evade the pseudo-sciency aura. Sawry! NoBorghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07219073694478645459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2197051945822486684.post-27448725551267948832017-09-29T09:00:17.547+10:002017-09-29T09:00:17.547+10:00Human instinct is extremely powerful, and repeated...Human instinct is extremely powerful, and repeatedly drives us into self-destructive actions, often even when we know (or ought to know) that the behavior is entirely harmful. Could there be some kind of instinctive drive supporting the attraction to socialism that blinds people to how completely pernicious it is? <br /><br />Beings that we are probably obliged to call "human" have existed for maybe three million years, and their lifestyle was hunter-gatherer. Hunter gatherers are more or less economically non-productive; if your neighbor is "wealthy", i.e., is taking more resources from his surroundings than you are, then in such a society, you are probably disadvantaged by it. In a modern capitalist society, you are most likely benefiting from your wealthy neighbor, but our instincts certainly haven't had time to adjust during the scant few centuries that such societies have existed. <br /><br />Maybe that's all a silly speculation that can't really be tested anyway, but there has to be some kind of very powerful unseen psychological support for socialism. Forget about convincing socialists that the record of unending failure says something about the inherent nature of socialism itself; they won't even acknowledge the existence of the record of failure. That wasn't "real" socialism, you see. Every socialist society that has ever existed simply doesn't count, because..... <br />NoBorghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07219073694478645459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2197051945822486684.post-25925656892809328432017-09-29T08:49:34.114+10:002017-09-29T08:49:34.114+10:00Socialism/communism constantly appeals because tha...Socialism/communism constantly appeals because that is how our ancestors evolved; small groups of hunter/gatherers with an alpha male and an alpha female who set the rules and ensured everyone did their part. Slackers were probably expelled from the group, which in those times would have meant almost certain death. The poorer the population of any given country is the stronger the attraction to vote communism. The more homogenous a country is, rich or poor, also increases the tendency to vote for socialism, as people feel like one big family. All of this is explainable by evolutionary psychology.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com