Saturday, August 28, 2010

Polarized Politics producing Right Wing extremist instability in North America



According to last nights "The National" CBC, Polarized politics in North America is leading to right wing dominance via political instability. Click title for the show below is an audio of the segment:



In March of 2007 my study was published in Aljazeerah

Below is a synopsis of what I believe is important about my insight.
Synopsis: Original Science--Do humans have a political gene?

My neighbor, the Odd Barnacle, and I had a spirited wide ranging discussion about the gist of my genetic relationship to this argument and here it is:

When one considers all of the ramifications of this insight, if this Genetic-Political component were true, we might be able to see why little gets done in polarized North American democracies which do not engage its citizenry with reason.

Although people rule by majority in a democracy and control our leadership with the vote, this may not be the way to draw forth intelligent capable compromisers/leaders who would get things done.

I believe this type of system of American/Canadian democracy, as practiced today, is approaching the leadership of the pack, spurred on by the most basic of instincts.

This might be due to the vicious hate-filled political campaigns designed to polarize the political factions of our society specifically, but also could be caused by a genetic drift to lower intelligence.


The personality types one would consistently expect to be drawn forth in these types of government systems in North America, would exactly resemble those chameleons, con artists, polarized political hacks which populate our vaunted democratic governments now.

These further results, pertaining to the American Presidential elections, indicate a decline of voter participation since the earliest (average of 1960, 1964, 1968= 61.93%) for which figures (the “Turnout”) were kept, until the last (average 1996, 2000, 2004= 51.87%). This is a (10.06%) (very) dramatic decline in less than 50 years... Do the letters "GWB" figure into it anywhere?

If our institutions don't evolve in harmony with all of the rest of life on this planet, there is little chance that we will master the solutions that will be needed to survive as a species in the immediate future.

Perhaps Plato was right?


The video + link below is a contribution to the conversation we had this morning on this subject by the Odd Barnacle Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice Also here is an article in Fortune touching the subject: Inside the secret world of Trader Joe's - Full Version