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Ken Schram Commentary: Just Born The 'Right' Way?
Via LGF:| Oooh! Look! It's an Ed Anger of the left! He's pig-bitin' mad, and he ain't gonna toake it no more! |
According to a new study published in the American Political Science Review, being politically conservative is, in part, a matter or genetics.
| Well, that makes sense. If a child's parents are intelligent, good-looking, morally sound, and all that sort of stuff, then you can expect the child to be, too... Oh. That's not what he meant, is it? |
Iâve long wondered how an otherwise seemingly rational person could adhere so strictly to stilted ideologies; how they could be so consistently willing to smother a sense of social well-being.
| Which sort of "stilted ideologies"? Political conservatism has many strains, running from the libertarian through the paleoconservative. We have no single set of books — like Das Kapital or the Communist Manifesto — that establish our dogma. Pretty much across the board, conservatives of all stripes revere cause and effect, balancing costs with benefits, the laws of probability, rules that apply to everyone, and even logic. |
Itâs merely a matter of having been dumped in the shallow end of the gene pool. Theyâre sorta like the puppy who piddles in the middle of the floor: They just donât know any better.
| Oh, I dunno. It's also a matter of age and experience for many of us. When I was a young fellow, I was close to being a socialist. There were many problems in this world, by Gad, and government should address them all. At once! People were suffering, dammit! It was government's responsibility to alleviate poverty, make sure people were treated the same, to ensure that cars were safe, and even to define "safe." Of course, when I was somewhat younger than that, I used to poop in my diaper. Thankfully, with the passage of years, I've outgrown both. |
To be sure, the study says that how someone is raised may determine their political party affiliation, but itâs genetics that appears to set one on a philosophically conservative course. To me, that helps explain why PBS threatens their intellect, or why they are so at peace with going to war.
| There's no threat to my intellect from PBS. PBS tends to bore me to tears. I don't think I've watched it in five years, at least, and even before that only briefly. And I'm at peace with going to war because I pay attention, unlike some residents of Seattle. |
Itâs not that conservatives mean to favor the rich over the poor and middle class. And itâs not that theyâd rather drill for oil than preserve the environment. Because itâs not really their fault. Theyâre just born that way.| It might be that many who're conservative used to be poor and have now achieved some sort of middle class stability. It might be that many are in the process of achieving that middle class stability and like the idea of the rules not being changed out from under them, and the idea of once they achieve some sort of economic stability that it won't be snatched away from them and given to somebody else. |
And
More on this genetic pseudo-validation of the far leftâs superiority complex, at (where else?) the New York Times: Some Politics May Be Etched in the Genes.
Posted by: anonymous2u 2005-06-22 |
