"Page0040" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bloom Howard - The Lucifer Principle (htm))

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S ociological Association have joined the cause, absolving "natural man"

of malevolence by endorsing "The Seville Statement," an international

manifesto which declares that "violence is neither in our evolutionary

legacy nor in our genes."3

As a result, we are told almost daily that modern western

culture--with its consumerism, its capitalism, its violent television

shows, its blood-soaked films, and its nature-mangling technologies--

"programs" violence into the wide-eyed human mind.  Our society is

supposedly an incubator for everything that appalls us.

However, culture alone is not responsible for violence, cruelty,

and war.  Despite the Seville Statement's contentions, our biological

legacy weaves evil into the substrate of even the most "unspoiled"

society.  What's more, organized battle is not restricted to humans.

Ants make war and either massacre or enslave a rival swarm.  Cichlid

fish gang up and attack outsiders.4    Myxobacteria  form  "wolf  packs"

that corner and dismember prey.5  Groups of lizards pick on a formerly

regal member of the clan who has become disfigured by the loss of his

tail.  Female bees chase an overaged queen through the corridors of the

hive and lunge, biting over and over until she is dead.  And even rival

"super coalitions" of a half-dozen male dolphins fight like street gangs,

often inflicting serious injuries.6  Ants do not watch television.  Fish

seldom go to the movies.  Myxobacteria, lizards, dolphins and bees

have not been "programmed" by Western culture.

A host of writers gained attention in the late eighties and early

nineties with books that celebrated a return to a mothering earth.  They

felt that if we scraped away large-scale agriculture,

internal-combustion engines, televisions, and air-conditioners, nature

would return to bless us with her primordial paradise.

Unfortunately these authors held a distorted view of pre-

industrial reality.  A pride of lions at their ease enjoys the kind of

nature the radical environmentalists dreamed about.  You can see the

smiles on lions' faces as they lick their paws and stretch out on the

ground side by side, clearly pleased with the comfort of each other's

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S ociological Association have joined the cause, absolving "natural man"

of malevolence by endorsing "The Seville Statement," an international

manifesto which declares that "violence is neither in our evolutionary

legacy nor in our genes."3

As a result, we are told almost daily that modern western

culture--with its consumerism, its capitalism, its violent television

shows, its blood-soaked films, and its nature-mangling technologies--

"programs" violence into the wide-eyed human mind.  Our society is

supposedly an incubator for everything that appalls us.

However, culture alone is not responsible for violence, cruelty,

and war.  Despite the Seville Statement's contentions, our biological

legacy weaves evil into the substrate of even the most "unspoiled"

society.  What's more, organized battle is not restricted to humans.

Ants make war and either massacre or enslave a rival swarm.  Cichlid

fish gang up and attack outsiders.4    Myxobacteria  form  "wolf  packs"

that corner and dismember prey.5  Groups of lizards pick on a formerly

regal member of the clan who has become disfigured by the loss of his

tail.  Female bees chase an overaged queen through the corridors of the

hive and lunge, biting over and over until she is dead.  And even rival

"super coalitions" of a half-dozen male dolphins fight like street gangs,

often inflicting serious injuries.6  Ants do not watch television.  Fish

seldom go to the movies.  Myxobacteria, lizards, dolphins and bees

have not been "programmed" by Western culture.

A host of writers gained attention in the late eighties and early

nineties with books that celebrated a return to a mothering earth.  They

felt that if we scraped away large-scale agriculture,

internal-combustion engines, televisions, and air-conditioners, nature

would return to bless us with her primordial paradise.

Unfortunately these authors held a distorted view of pre-

industrial reality.  A pride of lions at their ease enjoys the kind of

nature the radical environmentalists dreamed about.  You can see the

smiles on lions' faces as they lick their paws and stretch out on the

ground side by side, clearly pleased with the comfort of each other's