Hayek said that our atavistic instincts misled us into something that might be called social justice attitudes. In his new book E. O. Wilson seems to have a different perspective on our lingering cultural inheritances. Thoughts? Tribalism is only one consequence of what Wilson calls the “Paleolithic Curse: genetic adaptations that worked very well for millions of years of hunter-gatherer existence but are increasingly a hindrance in a globally urban and technoscientific society.” Among other ways in which our genetic adaptations ill suit us for contemporary conditions, he notes our penchant for racism, our refusal to curb population growth, our failure to cooperate with one another on a scale commensurate with the challenges we face and our devastation of the natural environment.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 19:55:01 +0000