Subject: (urth) urth Digest, Vol 26, Issue 23

From: Joe Smulkstis <jismulkstis at nyc.rr.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2006 11:55:49 +0000

It may be off topic, but I'm really enjoying the misogyny discussion.

Adam Thornton is exactly right when he points out "Chivalry *is* biology".
This ethic may have made sense when we needed to increase the number 
of villagers or be eaten by wolves, but with 6.5 billion people in the
world and a human-induced mass extinction being the current situation,
maximizing our numbers is no longer a desirable outcome.

I'd also like to agree with Hmph when she says:

> I'd say the differences between
> men and women are somewhat (or, depending on which depiction we're
> actually talking about, often even *hugely*) exaggerated. 

Oh, yes.  Absolutely.  I've met men who love children and women who 
genuinely can't stand the little bastards.  Theodore Sturgeon wrote 
a book called "Venus Plus X" which touches on this theme.

I think the any differences that may exist are amplified 
by people's desire to see themselves as part of groups 
with defined roles and behaviors, rather than just another 
dumb human.   Aside from childbirth and castration most behaviors
can be found somewhere in both men and women.

Thank you all for some very interesting discussions.

"The more I know people, the more I like animals".

Anyone know who said that?

Muskrat

---

From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2006 17:29:19 +0000

On 10/20/06, Joe Smulkstis <jismulkstis at nyc.rr.com> wrote:
> This ethic may have made sense when we needed to increase the
> number of villagers or be eaten by wolves, but with 6.5 billion people
> in the world and a human-induced mass extinction being the current
> situation, maximizing our numbers is no longer a desirable outcome.

Nonetheless, to the extent that "women and children first" is an
evolved behavioral tendency ... and I have some anecdotal evidence
(from, among other things, the '89 Loma Prieta 'quake) that suggests
to me that it really is ... the fact that we're overpopulated isn't going
to change that. Each successful gene in the genome has been
selected over billions of years to maximize its own replication.

Fortunately, as brilliant biologist and idiot philosopher Richard
Dawkins has pointed out, we are emphatically not the slaves of
our genes. We prove that every time we use any form of birth
control (including voluntary abstinence).

> "The more I know people, the more I like animals".

It was "The more I know of men, the more I like my cat."
Voltaire.

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant
-----
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer
http://www.danehyoakes.com
Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open
sewer and die.
  - Mel Brooks

---

From: Thomas Gant <tom59g at gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2006 00:01:40 +0000

On 10/20/06, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com> wrote:
> _______________________________________________
> Urth Mailing List
> To post, write urth at urth.net
> Subscription/information: http://www.urth.net
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/attachments/20061023/c91abd36/attachment.htm