> From: Keith Henson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > At 10:02 AM 02/07/04 -0700, David Brin wrote: > >- > > > >A citizen's movement > > > > > > HAH! > > > >Now this is silly. Yes some rich people are involved > >in MoveOn. But its base is broad and filled with > >average folk disgusted by what they see in their > >political foes. In truth, the same can be said about > >right wing groups like the Christian Coalition. > > > >Citizen groups on both sides are motivated by a blurry > >but definite image of the world they want to live to > >see. > > I think this is the case at the rational or "rationalizing" level. > > But I think a case can be made for it being a side effect of a bell curve > distribution of the human "trip level" related to the evolved psychological > mechanisms behind wars and due to individual economic outlooks. The > argument runs thus; human psychology was shaped by more than a million > years living as hunter gatherers. At some point predators ceased to be a > significant factor in controlling the size of human populations so when
> humans reproduced beyond the carrying capacity of the environment, they > sensed "looming privation." This (through the increased circulation of > "xenophobic memes") turned on the "predation" mode and synchronized the > warriors of a tribe facing hard times to attack another tribe (assuming no > other alternatives like moving over the horizon were available.) > > _Given_ this model (which could be calibrated from history) then the people > MoveOn draws from are those who have high trip points and/or higher > incomes, the Christian Coalition would draw from people with lower trip > points and/or lower incomes. There are certainly many messy feedback > loops, a lot of them involving memes. I don't think this squares with the fact that as income levels rise, so does support for republicans, that urban populations support democrats and rural populations support republicans or that women overwhelmingly support democrats and men overwhelmingly support republicans. I think the typical moveon supporter is poor, young, urban, female or black. I think the typical Jebus-On-A-Stick supporter is poor or very rich, older, rural, white male. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
