The Believing Brain - Michael Shermer [132]
2. Clear and quantitative intellectual differences among people in memory, problem-solving ability, cognitive speed, mathematical talent, spatial reasoning, verbal skills, emotional intelligence, and other mental attributes translate into some being more successful than others; at least half of these differences are inherited.
3. Evidence from behavioral genetics and twin studies indicate that 40 to 50 percent of the variance among people in temperament, personality, and many political, economic, and social preferences are accounted for by genetics.
4. Failed communist and socialist experiments around the world throughout the twentieth century revealed that top-down draconian controls over economic and political systems do not work.
5. Failed communes and utopian community experiments tried at various places throughout the world over the past 150 years demonstrated that people by nature do not adhere to the Marxian principle “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”
6. Family ties are powerful and the connectedness between blood relatives is deep. Communities who have tried to break up the family and have children raised by others provide counterevidence to the claim that “it takes a village” to raise a child. The continued practice of nepotism further reinforces the practice that “blood is thicker than water.”
7. The principle of reciprocal altruism—I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine—is universal; people do not by nature give generously unless they receive something in return, even if what they receive is only social status.
8. The principle of moralistic punishment—I’ll punish you if you do not scratch my back after I have scratched yours—is universal; people do not long tolerate free riders who continually take but almost never give.
9. Hierarchical social structures are almost universal. Egalitarianism works (barely) only among tiny bands of hunter-gatherers in resource-poor environments where there is next to no private property. When a precious game animal is hunted, extensive rituals and religious ceremonies are required to ensure equal sharing of the food.
10. Aggression, violence, and dominance are almost universal, particularly among young males seeking resources, women, and especially status. Status seeking in particular explains many heretofore unexplained phenomena, such as high risk taking, costly gifts, excessive generosity beyond one’s means, and especially attention seeking.
11. Within-group amity and between-group enmity are almost universal. The rule of thumb is to trust in-group members until they prove to be distrustful, and to distrust out-group members until they prove to be trustful.
12. The desire of people to trade with one another is almost universal—not for the selfless benefit of others or the society, but for the selfish benefit of one’s own kin and kind; it is an unintended consequence that trade establishes trust between strangers and lowers between-group enmity, as well as produces greater wealth for both trading partners and groups.
The founders of our republic established our system of government as they did based on this Realistic Vision of human nature. The tension between individual liberty and social cohesiveness can never be resolved to everyone’s satisfaction, and so the moral pendulum swings left and right, and politics is played mostly between the two forty-yard lines of the political playing field. This tension between freedom and security, in fact, would explain why third parties have such a difficult time finding a toehold on the political rock face of America, and typically crater after an election or cower in the shadows of two behemoths that have come to define the left-right system. In Europe, where third, fourth, and even fifth parties receive substantial support at the polls, they are,