urth Digest, Vol 26, Issue 23 The Urth list — 3 messages, 3 voices, 20 Oct 2006 https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/4740 Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it. Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. ============================================================================== Joe Smulkstis — 20 Oct 2006, 11:55 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dan'l Danehy-Oakes — 20 Oct 2006, 17:29 in reply to Joe Smulkstis > On 10/20/06, Joe Smulkstis wrote: > 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. 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thomas Gant — 24 Oct 2006, 00:01 in reply to Dan'l Danehy-Oakes > On 10/20/06, Dan'l Danehy-Oakes wrote: > > On 10/20/06, Joe Smulkstis wrote: > > 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. > 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 > _______________________________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------