Colin Wilson qrites in "A Criminal History Of Mankind":

Dominance is a subject of enormous interest to biologists and zoologists because the percentage of dominant animals -- or human beings -- seems to be amazingly constant. [...] biological studies have confirmed [... that ...] for some odd reason, precisely five per cent -- one in twenty -- of any animal group are dominant -- have leadership qualities." [...]

This animal connection is very interesting.

A corresponded told a following story that originally came from an article in some psychology or ethology magazine.

Baboons are highly hierarchial primates, where a dominant male basically mates with all females, and subdominant animals have no chance. A clan of baboons was observed in a national park. They lived by a hotel within the territory and regularly came to rummage in the daily trash, searching for scraps of food. As always, the dominant males were the first to eat, and others got whatever was left, if any.

One day, something was thrown out that has already gone bad. Dominant males, being first to feed, ate it all up and died. The scientists were very interested in observing what would happen to the population now. But nobody could have predicted the results. In the absence of dominant males, no one stepped up to take their position. The other baboons developed an altruistic society, where everyone was pretty much equal, and tended to the sick and the weak. What's still more interesting that the stray males who have joined the community later have also accepted those rules of the game.

These stories and others, I think, go to show that altruism and selfishness are two separate evolutionary paths.

The problem is that any explanations of altruism in animal studies is either trying to pin down some reason why it still may be USEFUL for the individual and the population in some way, or depict altruistic creatures as dumb or sick or, in general, unfit. Here is an example:

A 2-3 year old lioness 'Kamunyak' had adopted a Fledgling young Oryx calf. The news was treated with a lot of skepticism since an Oryx is a type of antelope upon which lions usually prey. [..] The lioness, nicknamed Kamunyak, or The Blessed One, by locals, had protected her adopted young from danger and had allowed them to nurse from their biological mothers. [..]Three years have passed and astonishingly Kamunyak, (the lioness' Samburu name), had in total adopted six Oryx calves. [..] Sometimes even to her expense as she could not effectively hunt so as to keep guard; a fact that emaciated her to a point of near death. [..]

There are several theories that have been proposed to explain this extra ordinary behavior of the female African lion.

1) The question has been raised whether this could have begun on a hunt with an unusually long game of cat and mouse, where after 24 hours she bonded with the calf. [..]
2) The Samburu people suggested Kamunyak is barren. [..]
3) She could have a serious hormonal imbalance, which is triggering this abnormal behavior with another species. [..]T
4) [..]If a lioness' rank affects their endocrinology perhaps a phantom pregnancy is a possible explanation.
5) [..]Oryx calves are remarkably similar in colour to the tawny coat of an African lion, and it is possible that once the lioness had locked onto the smell of "cub" in the calf then it's lack of a feline physique ceased to matter.
etc

Consider also that Darwin was influenced by Smith and Maltus, i.e. economic and social theories of the time, and as shown by Ernst Mayer, his concept of evolution was essentially deductive. Looks like the very method used in biological studies is influenced by certain ideology that glorifies egoism, and, as a result, doesn't offer a concept of altruism as a choice of intrinsic value. Psychopathology everywhere -- no wonder they like game theory so much in population studies.
Another thing worth mentioning is that many equate egoism with general fitness, which implies that egotistic individuals are somehow better.

This is not necessarily true. As Colin Wilson writes: "Inevitably, a percentage of the dominant [types] have no particular talent or gift; some may be downright stupid.” This agrees with studies of sociopaths, natural human egotists. Their IQ is average or slightly lower, when compared to the population average.

This corresponds to what we see in animal studies. I have read recently in the Atlantic Monthly that because of new information, it is clear that a lot of animal communities a great deal more democratic than was previously thought. The leader, or a dominant, doesn't make decisions on when and where to take off and go to new feeding grounds, or to run away from danger. Animals just do it all together when a certain treshold percentage of individuals wants to turn that way, or when someone senses that something's not right.

Thus the 'leader' does not necessarily LEAD anyone. He is not necessarily smarter of wiser or more resilient. He is just bigger and stronger and gets advantage in mating. And the funny part is that he may be bigger and stronger not because of his genetic fitness, but simply because he has been pushing others out of the way all his life and getting more food than they did.

Mirror Neurons and Empathy

A corresponded send me a link to an interesting bit of information, which I would like to pass on:

from Wikipedia:

A mirror neuron is a neuron which fires both when an animal performs an action and when the animal observes the same action performed by another (especially conspecific) animal. Thus, the neuron "mirrors" the behavior of another animal, as though the observer were itself performing the action. These neurons have been observed in primates, including humans, and in some birds. In humans, they have been found in Broca's area and the inferior parietal cortex of the brain. Some scientists consider mirror neurons one of the most important findings of neuroscience in the last decade.
[..]
It is not normally possible to study single neurons in the human brain, so scientists can not be certain that humans have mirror neurons. However, the results of brain imaging experiments have shown that the human inferior frontal gyrus and inferior parietal cortex is active when the person performs an action and also when the person sees another individual performing an action. Therefore, these brain regions are likely to contain mirror neurons and have been defined as the human mirror neuron system. [..]

In the monkey, mirror neurons are found in the inferior frontal gyrus and inferior parietal lobule. These neurons are active when the monkeys perform certain tasks, but they also fire when the monkeys watch someone else perform the same specific task. Researchers using fMRI, TMS, and EEG have found evidence of a similar system (matching observations with actions), in the human brain.[..]

Mirror neurons certainly have the potential to provide a mechanism for action understanding, imitation learning, and the simulation of other people's behaviour.[..]

Defects in mirror neurons are linked to people with autism.

another quote form an essay on the subject:



Rizzolatti's discovery can help us solve this age-old puzzle. He recorded from the ventral premotor area of the frontal lobes of monkeys and found that certain cells will fire when a monkey performs a single, highly specific action with its hand: pulling, pushing, tugging, grasping, picking up and putting a peanut in the mouth etc. different neurons fire in response to different actions. One might be tempted to think that these are motor "command" neurons, making muscles do certain things; however, the astonishing truth is that any given mirror neuron will also fire when the monkey in question observes another monkey (or even the experimenter) performing the same action, e.g. tasting a peanut! With knowledge of these neurons, you have the basis for understanding a host of very enigmatic aspects of the human mind: "mind reading" empathy, imitation learning, and even the evolution of language. Anytime you watch someone else doing something (or even starting to do something), the corresponding mirror neuron might fire in your brain, thereby allowing you to "read" and understand another's intentions, and thus to develop a sophisticated "theory of other minds."


Sounds like these mirror neurons could be a possible mechanism underlying empathy and altruistic behavior. The mirror neuron systems described in monkeys appear to pertain to gross an fine motor skills. Humans may have more developed and flexible mirroring systems, better equipped to evaluate visual and auditory symbols. Our culture and learning is based on imitation. In early development, gross motor skills imitation is the easiest kind, and comes first, followed by fine motor skills and language. One can imagine same type of pathways that help people learn the meaning of complex emotions and how they are expressed.

Perhaps, in brains of psychopaths they malfunction because of a genetic defect or, in frontal characteropathy, damage to frontal zones of the brain? The link to autism is also IMO significant.

Here is another quote that sums up my own recent thoughts on altruism:

It is often said that man is selfish by nature. Even when humans sometimes demonstrate altruistic behavior, e.g., help another without obvious gain for the self, it is done with the expectation that help will be reciprocated, or so says the game theory. Yet, the understanding of how mirror neurons work demonstrates that empathy and conscience are very natural. If someone has troubles, you also feel bad, and if someone is happy, you feel happy too. When a baby cries, his mother feels his crying as his own; and when mother is happy and content, so is the baby -- this is very important, especially in the first few months of life. Such behavior is natural for us, we are really not THAT selfish.

It all fits, as a piece of a puzzle, unless I am missing some details.

Education: IB and NWO

Charlotte Izerbyt is an education researcher who writes from an edgy traditional conservative position. She authored a book 'The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America', where she decries a conspiracy of an American education system takeover by UN socialists, in order to bust the traditional americal values of freedom and democracy :), as a part of implementation of a UN-based New World Order. She collected a great deal of factual information, but her conclusions are IMO one-sided: on that level there is only one 'master' so to speak, and and all the factions that come into play and power are the endless 'good cop vs/ bad cop' game. Which is what she misses
entirely, and it becomes a big us vs. them thing.

Well, looks like either Izerbyt was right all along, or we are beholding the next players coming onto the stage:


Learning globally

The Bush administration has begun issuing grants to help spread a United Nations-sponsored school program that aims to become a "universal curriculum" for teaching global citizenship, peace studies and equality of world cultures.
The goal is to devise a curriculum to teach "a set of culturally neutral universal values to which all people aspire," based on human rights, equality of the sexes and "open-mindedness to change and obligation to environmental protection and sustainable development."
The U.S. Education Department has issued its first $1.2 million grant to implement the European-based International Baccalaureate (IB) program in middle schools that are to become "feeder schools" for the IB's high school diploma program in low-income school districts.

Did you catch this thing about the low-income school districts? Here it is again ('low-income' is the same code-word as 'minority'):


The Bush administration's $1.2 million grant from the Education Department's Advanced Placement Incentives Program (APIP) is to train teachers and set up six middle- and high-school "partnerships" to implement the IB curriculum for minority students.


So what should these kids learn?


In a statement called "The Road to Peace," UNESCO said: "Let it be a school of values, of attitudes, above all of practical action so that we learn to obtain justice through nonviolence and ensure that all human rights become a living reality for every person. [..]

The IB curriculum, UNESCO said, would promote human rights and social justice; the need for "sustainable development"; and address population, health, environmental and immigration concerns.

"Changing patterns of national and international migration and political and social transformation have given cultural diversity a new importance," the statement said.

No kidding. Know thy place, everyone.

What floored me is HOW the kids are supposed to learn about non-violence and human rights:


"The IBO programs promote a constructivist approach to learning," the 1999 UNESCO document stated. "Teachers recognize that students bring prior knowledge to any learning situation and will come into contact with the curriculum through activities designed by the teacher. The students make sense of their experiences to construct meaning."
As an example, fourth-grade teachers at Christ Church Episcopal School in Greenville, S.C., said they "set about fomenting an uprising in our classrooms" in order to allow their 9- and 10-year-old students to understand the dynamics of the American Revolution leading to independence in 1776.
Writing in May in "IB World," the program's international magazine, four teachers said they wanted the children "to experience personally the forces that lead to revolution, without shedding blood in the classroom, of course."
The teachers said they circulated a fake official-sounding memorandum that told students their recesses were cut to make up for days that school had been canceled for snow. "The students were really angry, pointing out that the lost classes had not been their fault and that they had not been consulted about this," the teachers wrote.
The students' own proposal for Saturday classes instead of cutting recess was rejected. As discussions ensued, one student called on classmates to "take over the school," and another student demanded that they "go on strike."
"I'm not sure fighting for recess is that important, but fighting for freedom is," one student said.
"This was the moment of truth," the teachers wrote. "This was the connection that made the 18th-century American Revolution real to these 21st-century students."


The specter of the Stanford Prison Experiment has risen :). Jokes aside, how insane is that, and what better way to teach that the system has you?

Here is the curriculum itself:


In IB's two-year high school diploma program, pupils study three major subjects at the "higher level" and three minor subjects at the "standard level," which must include mathematics, humanities, and at least one science and a foreign language.
Students also must take IB's philosophical course on "Theory of Knowledge" and research and write a 4,000-word extended essay on a subject of their choice, similar to a university thesis, under the supervision of a teacher.
IB-diploma students also must complete 150 hours of extracurricular "Creativity, Action and Service," which could include sports, music, art, drama, and volunteer service in the community.
English courses use a "Prescribed World Literature List" of 421 authors, including 57 from England and the United States. Critics, however, question the narrow selection.

Call me an elitist academic, but this doesn't sound like much. Oh, right, it is a 2-year program, as opposed to the traditional 4-year high school program. In UK, IB is used in some schools for kids over 16; I am not sure whether in the US they will start it at 14 and let kids out of high-school by 16. That would make sense: 16 is a compulsory attendance age in many states, and after 16 nobody monitors troubled kids anymore. Which is why up to 30% of kids drop out of high schools in their junior and senior year; this is according to the new statistics that have been covered up intil recently and have just began to surface. IB would simply legitimize this state of affairs.

So there we have it:

take already disadvantaged poor kids;

brainwash them with a set of fuzzy values on one hand and a set of psychopathic psychological tactics on another, to cut off the roots of any legitimate dissatisfation with reality that they may have;

dumb them down with a curriculum specifically designed for this purpose;

and off they go, to the bottom of the ladder, helping to propell the consumer-driven society forward.

One more step towards the Brave New World.

Open Letter to Shoutwire.com

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Details are here and here.

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Thank you for your cooperation.