the dangers of socio-biology

“…just under the surface of western politics, the dimly remembered conflict between cicero and catiline still acts as a template for our own political struggles and arguments. cicero’s eloquence, even if only half understood, still informs the language of modern politics.” mary beard. Spqr: a history of ancient rome.__________ “a second diagnostic hereditary trait of human behavior is the overpowering instinctual urge to belong to groups in the first place, shared with most kinds of social animals…a person’s membership in his group…his tribe…is a large part of his identity. it also confers on him to some degree or other a sense of superiority.”_____ ___ “we are addicted to tribal conflict, which is harmless and entertaining if it is sublimated into team sports, but deadly when expressed as real world ethic, religious, and ideological struggles.” e.o. wilson. The meaning of human existence_____________________ i have been reading a lot of e.o. wilson of late and it has ruined me for social sciences i fear…I have always been fairly skeptical of history…it’s written by people after all and we all have viewpoints and biases…so does the history people write ( cicero anyone? self- promoting…arrogant...mouthpiece of the roman elite of the late republic )…mary beard maintains that the late roman republic and that same cicero “inform” modern politics…she also talks about the “tribes” of rome…the divisions to which roman voters “belonged”…and I have to wonder if it is the romans who “inform” modern political language ( and I must admit that there is a lot of neo-classical architectural kitsch in the capitol…but Hamilton was talking about “empire” in the federalist papers and they all had rank classical educations…pretty much all there was to have…not that that is defensible as far as I can see )..or if the romans and the pathetic, insulated, dogmatic lackeys of oligarchy we find in today’s national capitol are responding to some deeper past…that they are both “informed” by the same evolutionary past that has become hardwired over manifold generations…a grandiose expression of a hunter-gatherer ( forager, coach? ) past that is somewhat at sea in a swamp of technology it is not evolved to utilize responsibly…I will continue to read beard’s book…looking for similarities in the political structures of the two empires separated by two millennia…e.o. Wilson will be looking over my shoulder and whispering in my ear all the while saying “look deeper.”