RE: good points

-----Original Message-----
Behalf Of Anthony S. Alvarez

>I am somewhat disheartened by your back-pedaling on the information issue,
>and your limiting of the knowledge/information issue to the educated west
>seems arbitrary at best. I would really like to see you make a much

I don't understand your point...  Unless you are operating under the
misconception that workers in the so-called democracies are allowed to -- or
even capable of -- determining their own futures.  Is that where you are
coming from?

>stronger connection between genetics and and the various endeavors in
>which humans participate.

Well, isn't it obvious?  If one rejects the metaphysical explanations, then
the only remaining basis for human mind is physical. Thoughts are physical:
dendrites, neurons, and the chemicals that make them go.  As children
develop, thinking and behavior reinforces certain pathways and the body
dissolves the unused connections.   The same old "use it or lose it" that
applies to muscles, also applies to brains.

If you are interested in how specific genes influence specific behavior,
that is the domain of the microbiologists and behavioral geneticists.
LIVING WITH OUR GENES is a good place to start.  If you click here
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385485840 and have a credit card
with $11.96 worth of credit left, you can read all about it.

If you are interested in knowing why most humans tend to behave in certain
ways, then evolutionary psychology is what you are looking for. Try the
HANDBOOK OF EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY: Ideas Issues and Applications, Eds.
Charles Crawford & Dennis Krebs; Lawrence Erlbaum, 1998
http://www.erlbaum.com/2621.htm

If you are interested in politics, then this book will explain why democracy
could never work.  (All contemporary, so-called democracies are actually
authoritarian in nature.  They are ruled by the moneyed classes.)

"[ Evolutionary scientists ] Somit and Peterson provide an informative
account of the evolutionary basis for our historical (and current)
opposition to democracy. For many, this will be an unwelcome message - like
being told that one's fly is unzipped. But after a brief bout of anger, we
tend to thank the messenger for sparing us further embarrassment."
[  Robert E. Lane, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Yale
University, and Past President, American Political Science Association,
commenting on DARWINISM, DOMINANCE, AND DEMOCRACY: The Biological Bases of
Authoritarianism, by Albert Somit and Steven A. Peterson; Review at
http://info.greenwood.com/books/0275958/0275958175.html ]


Jay