the moon's favors: alpha baboons

2012/08/04

alpha baboons

Robert Sapolsky, one of my big heroes (and not an alpha baboon). Some links follow, but apply his work to the New Scientist article dn22071 July 2012 issue 2875 : Inequality: Why egalitarian societies died out

excerpt:

"We cannot assume that because inequality exists, it is somehow beneficial. Equality - or inequality - is a cultural choice..."

"[...] inequality might exacerbate selection on an individual level for high fertility, competition, aggression, social climbing and other selfish traits."

And maybe -- alpha baboons?

Watch:

more:

http://themoonsfavors.blogspot.com/search?q=sapolsky

http://www.pbs.org/programs/killer-stress/

http://www.ted.com/speakers/robert_sapolsky.html

Words whisper, carrying more than one might know, hypostases, rather than mere understanding. Words grow from roots, spawn families, travel and mingle, get lost, get found, and often marry the strangest bedfellows. Like our bodies, our ideas, and our culture, words evolve, handed down to us from a place beyond memory. As the warp and woof of language, words possess the magic to shape the immaterial into the solid things of psyche ~From my intro to AO's The Archives of the Heart

The Platonic tradition may be likened to an underground river that from time to time sends up a spring; wherever its waters flow, the soul is reborn, and with it the conception of intellectual form, the beautiful, and true art.~ Kathleen Raine