From: dgraham@bmers30.bnr.ca (Douglas Graham)
Subject: Re: source of morality for atheists
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 92 07:44:44 GMT

In article <10544@vice.ICO.TEK.COM> bobb@vice.ICO.TEK.COM (Robert Beauchaine) writes:
>In article <1992Oct11.071709.18397@bmerh85.bnr.ca> dgraham@bmers30.bnr.ca (Douglas Graham) writes:
>>
>>Certainly there will have to be some experimentation, and certainly
>>it ought to be able to adapt to changing circumstances.  New technology
>>will probably change things drastically.  Maybe it won't be long before
>>we can all go and get our brains fixed to get rid of our aggressive
>>instincts once and for all.
>>
>  Are you sure that this is the problem?  I'm a white male in 1990's
>  America, blamed for (as Dave Berry puts it) every atrocious act in
>  the last half century plus the death of Bambi's mother.  

Well, it seems that white males (I'm guilty as well) have been responsible
for a rather large proportion of the misery on this planet, and not
just over the last half century.  But I don't think there's anything
genetically peculiar about white males in that respect -- it's just that
by an accident of history they find themselves at the top of the food chain
for the time being.

>  What I'm saying is, should we be concerned with removing our
>  agressive instincts (which I'm told a frontal lobotomy does quite
>  nicely),

I'm told that lopping off those pesky oblong things that hurt so much
when they get kicked works wonders as well.  Perhaps the solution is to
make it illegal to manufacture testosterone.

>  or should we be more concerned with understanding our
>  nature and impulses?  Just as the homosexual community is striving
>  for validation of their lifestyle, perhaps we shouldn't flippantly
>  call agressiveness evil or undesirable, but rather stress
>  acceptance of what we are.

That's probably a much more realistic solution.  I think that a lot
could be changed in our culture towards this end.  But there really
isn't any reason to believe that our brains are in any way ideal.
They're just composed of baggage accumulated over the course of
evolution, and might benefit from some tinkering once they're well
enough understood.  If the AI guys would hurry up, we might soon
be able to download our minds into different hardware just to try
them on for size.

>  It may be that channeling this
>  agressiveness to more socially appropriate avenues is a better
>  solution.  Take away someone's agressiveness, and you take away a 
>  substantial part of what makes him strive to do something more with 
>  his life.  

I think that there is a difference between wanting to do something
your life, and wanting to dominate others which is what I take
aggression to mean:

aggression: a forceful action or procedure (as an unprovoked attack)
            esp. when intended to dominate or master.

Whatever it is in the dictators and demagogues that drive them to want
to subjugate millions or even billions of people for no good reason is
what I'd like to see disappear.
--
Doug Graham          Unk, the big trouble with dumb bastards is that they
dgraham@bnr.ca       are too dumb to believe there is such a thing as being
My own opinions.     smart.    --Kurt Vonnegut from _The Sirens of Titan_