Is the difference between a Liberal and a Conservative just their
political ideology? Could biology be involved? Could this difference in opinion
be due to “over domestication”?
When we were cave dwellers, hunters and gatherers, our
survival skills were our primary function. Competing with our fellow cave peeps
or trying not to get eaten by a saber-tooth tiger were daily concerns. A bad
day in the wild was a real bad day. If you have to focus on survival skills
exclusively, you probably live in a pretty toxic environment.
Remove that caveman from the wild and place them into a more
civilized setting. A village or community where you can purchase or barter for
food, sleep in a hut or house and not always be fearful that you may be eaten
on a daily basis. This leads to what biologist’s call “domestication”.
Similar to the domestication of wolves that led to our pet
dogs. Based on years of experiments with the domestication of different species
of animals, biologists have observed several common effects that occur as a
result. Biologists attribute these changes to the Neural Crest cells. These are
cells that develop early in life that determine the physiology of our bodies
including our brain development and demeanors. These Neural Crest cells base
their direction of development on the needs of the host. The environment plays
a very vital role. Our ability to blend in, aggressiveness, athletic abilities,
hunting prowess, etc. are all based on our need for these skills. Our need is
based on our environment. Do we need to be a good hunter if we can go down to
the local deli for a pastrami sandwich? If we live in a very low crime
community, do we need to be on alert all the time? The more we progress, the
less we need to fall back on our basic survival skills once needed when we
carried spears.
However, there is some drawbacks to this domestication.
Maybe it can be considered “over domestication”. If we get so far away from our
basic survival skills, we lose them. But, when you no longer need to concern
yourselves with basic survival it does allow you to delve more into philosophy,
experimentation or maybe even shopping for an electric car or coming up with
the newest popular latte’.
If you are living in a nice and safe part of a city,
surrounded by your cashmere wearing friends reminiscing about the last protest
you were involved in, you may have little to no need to fall back on your
caveman skills of ole. It may lead you to contemplate why we even need the
Police or the military or anything that is based on our basic survival skills.
If you grew up on a farm and faced life and death on a daily
basis, provide protection for your livestock from potential predators, by shear
necessity, you are still in touch with the basic survival needs. If you grew up
in the country and hunted deer, you also tap into the basic survival needs. If
you live in Boston and work in an office and your favorite past time is
drinking craft beer with your friends from college. How much do you rely on
your basic survival skills? You may see where I am going with this.
Our opinions on issues, prejudices, likes, dislikes are all
based on our personal experiences and what we have been exposed to. I’m talking
generally here, because there are exceptions to every rule, but in general, you
tend to see people who are detached from our basic survival skills to have a
more Liberal view on life as opposed to those that still have a connection to
these skills. If you have no real sense of fear of any type of predator, you
will not truly see the need for Police or even the act of preparing for a
possible threat. This certainly can be a drawback in the sense that a predator
who has the element of surprise will most likely be successful in their
efforts. This puts you off guard if you do not at least entertain the
possibility that someone may want to hurt you or take what is yours. You become
more of an easy target.
You may not understand someone that prepares for a possible
threat or someone who is concerned about a worse case scenario.
A domesticated dog will lose his camouflaged coat, his
perked up ears will become floppy and his long snout will become shortened. Even
the brain of a domesticated dog is different from that of their wolf cousins.
All those things that are necessary in the wild are now secondary or even non-existent.
Is “over-domestication” what causes the Liberal-minded
person to not fully understand a more Conservative viewpoint? Not having to
burden yourself with basic survival worries allows you to delve into deeper
thought on any and all subjects. If you do not consider the dangers of life are
you missing the big picture?
As a Conservative, does thinking of these basic survival
concerns take up too much of our thinking time? For some, it seems to be too important
(i.e. conspiracy theorists). Does a Conservative need to concern themselves
with worst case scenarios as much as they do? What are they forgetting or
missing when weighing issues? For Police Officers or Military in a war zone it
will save your life. But, how does one turn that off when you realistically do
not need it? Or can you?
Maybe this is the difference between the Liberal and the
Conservative or maybe it is just scratching the surface. I seem to have more
questions than answers.
Most of my blogs are not just my opinions, but a different
aspect of a conversation that may have not been considered. In this piece, I am
comparing the two extremes in political ideologies and it’s possible connection
to our actual biology. I would venture to guess that most of us fall in between
within each party. Pigeon holing people into one or the other party is
unrealistic. There are likely at least a few dozen categories that people fall
into. Either way, I believe we need a balance between Liberal and Conservative
views. If the pendulum swings too far either way we lose something. We definitely
need to have people with a variety of opinions in order to find that happy
median.
~ Sean Labbe
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