Hmmm… So THAT’S Why We Behave That Way….
Darwinian natural selection helps to explain why giraffes have long necks, why polar bears are white and countless other things in the natural world, but it also help to explain many things about our behavior:
Sexual Behavior
In this day and age of the “Me Too Movement”, every young person (especially young men) should be given a one-hour lecture on Evolutionary Psychology. Young men entering puberty should be told, “Okay, you might soon begin acting like a jerk toward women and it’s important that you understand why so that you can be better poised to control your behavior.” Please see The Three Caveman Archetypes of Male Sexuality.
Above all else, all living creatures are programed to reproduce. Humans are no exception. Those who were somehow disinterested in reproduction had their DNA drop out of the gene pool. Meanwhile, those obsessed with reproduction and caring for offspring had their DNA flourish and spread.
Men are walking insemination machines. The cave man who was able to get his genetic material (his penis) into the most women was the genetic winner. This is where rape comes from – to say nothing of the countless forms of manipulation, coercion, bribery and persuasion that men use to have their way with women. (To clarify: The most aggressive and brazen rapists also dropped out of the gene pool when the tribe’s women ganged up to murder them.)
The reason many men enjoy performing oral sex on women is that being nice to women was yet another way to get their DNA passed on into future generations. See The Three Caveman Archetypes of Male Sexuality.
The reason so many older men fixate on younger women is that older women are no longer producing offspring. While younger women will generally want a man of their own age for protection and virility, a younger woman can at times be drawn to an older man if he has wealth and/or power that can assure that their offspring will have a better chance of survival.
Women are slightly more complex where sexual behavior is concerned. A highly successful man can father many children by multiple mothers, but a women can only have about one baby per year (unless she has twins). Generally speaking women have no difficulty finding a sperm donor, so the focus becomes more of selecting the best man for the job. Criteria include healthy good looks, ability to protect and feed the woman & their offspring and a disposition that would indicate that the man will stick around to help raise the child. That some women seemingly enjoy performing oral sex on men developed as a mechanism to further incentivize men to remain in the picture providing protection and parental support.
While natural selection has made men notorious womanizers, there IS a lesser degree of this in women. The woman who could discreetly or diplomatically provide sexual favors for a second man without driving away per primary partner, could garner further support, protection and food.
Various of the above points may be called into question to the degree that early humans had free and open sexual relationships, in spite of jealousy developing in response to the need of men to know that the baby coming out of ‘their’ woman was indeed THEIRS.
Motherly Love
Countless people complain that their mothers worry too much. This is because the mothers who didn’t worry about their children had them fall off cliffs, drown or get eaten by predators. Thus, their DNA dropped out of the gene pool.
Male Rage
The cave man who could summon the greatest degree of adrenaline and rage enjoyed a genetic advantage over his more docile counterparts because he was better suited to fight off predators and adversaries. While various traditional, indigenous cultures had ‘boys-to-men’ rituals that helped young men to understand the rage burning in their hearts, little such effort is made in modern, western culture. Thus, with the overprescription of psychiatric medications, the abundance of semi automatic firearms and the dysfunctional state of our culture generally, we often have mass shooting and other tragedies. For more on this, see the section on Gun Culture.
Honesty
Deception occurs throughout nature. For example there’s the insect that evolved to look like a twig to avoid predators or the orchid that evolved to look like a particular bumblebee so as to get pollinated. Not surprisingly, as soon as humans developed spoken language, we started telling
lies. But lying is tricky because the slightest inflection in one’s speech or body language can give you away to an observant person. Therefore, the most effective liars are the ones who, on some weird level, actually believe the lie themselves. This might explain how humans became so good at self deception. This is a huge problem for modern society as countless politicians, bureaucrats, business people and religious fanatics are systematically groomed and conditioned to believe absolutely ridiculous shit when it happens to serve their careers, profit margins or perverse,
inbred model of reality. See the section on Human Consciousness.
Dominance, Manipulation and Coercion
As we evolved as a species, the more aggressive and manipulative among us enjoyed a greater genetic advantage. Certain men were able to father more children through manipulation & insensitivity and both men AND women who were given to manipulative behavior were able to garner the resources and support to assist THEIR children to survive and prosper. Thus, various people distinctly lacking in altruism, compassion and kindness have done well for themselves over human history and have produced offspring. Many of the descendants of these people have been
well-suited to achieve positions of power in society. Thus, many of those in power today are not really the most well suited for the job – at least in terms of what is best for all of us. Search: Genetic Legacy of Genghis Khan.
Sanctity of Life
In the abortion debate and elsewhere, there is a strong emphasis placed on “the sanctity of human life”. This is because as we evolved as a species, it was important for our survival to have a healthy and well-populated clan. Meanwhile, it was also important for our survival to be able
to nonchalantly slaughter the members of rival clans competing for food and other resources. This is how it is that if a baby is killed in the US, it is viewed as a huge tragedy, but if Saudi Arabia drops a (US made) bomb on a Yemeni school bus, it’s soon forgotten. Or perhaps more relevantly, the terrorist attack of 9/11/2001 is seen in the US as an epic and unforgivable crime, but responding to 9/11 by killing far greater numbers of people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, etc. is somehow seen as a reasonable. More on this matter in the section on Population. Please read more Selective Sanctity of Human Life.