Sex, Violence, Politics, and God
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Sex, Violence, Politics, and God Also by this author: Chimpanzees Don’t Wear Pants — A Retired Psychiatrist Takes a Second Look at Human Nature Sex, Violence, Politics, and God How They Rule Our Lives by Ed Long, M.D. Author of Chimpanzees Don’t Wear Pants Copyright © 2002 by Edward G. Long, M.D. All rights reserved. No part of this work shall be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, photographic including photocopying, or by any infor- mation storage and retrieval system without prior written permission of the author. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and the author assume no responsibilities for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of informa- tion contained herein. 1. Social Psychology 2. Morality 3. Government 4. Economics 5. Religion 6. Sexuality Cover design by Vivian R. Long & Peter Paul Rubens For Amelia and Isabella, because knowledge is power. Table of Contents — Introduction Why should we care? Part One: The Irony Of It All A Preview by Thomas Jefferson Prologue: The Secrets of Happiness. 01 What Would It Take to Satisfy You? ....................................1 (The simple needs and wants of the Human Animal, versus the extraordinary pursuits of modern men and women.) 02 Let Them Eat Cake ..............................................................9 (A litany of oppressive and obstructive aspects of society which keep the masses angry, and how the Manipulators divert or defuse that anger. How television mollifies the masses—even as it tantalizes them with ads for all the “necessary” things they can't afford.) 03 The Problem With Problems .............................................15 (Why No one Wants to Solve Important Problems.) 04 One Man’s Meat Is Another Man’s Poison ........................19 (How Solutions Cause Problems.) 05 How To Solve a Problem Without Making It Go Away .....23 Why we–and our leaders–are reluctant to disturb the status quo.) Part Two: The Manipulators and the Manipulated 06 Morality, What Is It and Who Needs It? ...........................29 (Morality is behaving the way our "Leaders" want us to behave. Our leaders want us to be compliant, hard working, and peaceful — until they tell us it's time to go to war. Morals change with changing economic conditions.) 07 Arbiters of Morality — The Manipulators ........................43 (The Manipulators are primarily the four R's—Religions, Rulers, the Rich, and the Rumormongers—but they can manipulate only with the compliance of the fifth R, the Rabble.) 08 Rich Man, Poor Man .........................................................55 (A history of how the masses have been kept in a state of abject obedience.) 09 Blessed Are The Poor ........................................................59 (Poverty is relative. It once was difficult to know whether one was poor, but now everyone thinks he's poor; everyone wants more.) 10 A Kind of Morality That Isn't Evil ....................................67 (Live and Let Live, and occasionally when it's not too onerous lend a helping hand. Be friendly, but not intrusive.) Part Three: Living With The Manipulators 11 Resisting Evil .....................................................................73 (Contending with the arrogance and amorality of Manipulators.) 12 A Splendid Little War .........................................................83 (Cuba, from its discovery by Spain to its unofficial “annexation” by the United States.) 13 The Domino Theory ..........................................................91 (Another gruesome example of manipulation: A brief history of war in Vietnam.) 14 I Pledge Allegiance .............................................................97 (An unpatriotic view of patriotism.) 15 Is Ignorance Really Bliss? ..................................................99 (The need to maintain fictions to make the average life seem worthwhile, the negative contributions of television, and the obvious but elusive solutions.) 16 Crime and Punishment ......................................................105 (The crime of punishment, the folly of prisons, the sweetness of revenge.) 17 A Capital Joke ..................................................................113 (Thoughts about capital punishment.) 18 What To Do About Criminals .........................................115 (What it would take to reduce the need to commit crimes, what we currently do to encourage crime, the roles of parents and the entertainment industry, and the enormity of it all.) 19 The Abortion Debate .......................................................123 (The non-issue and the real-issue. The role of manipulators. Foolish answers and common sense.) Part Four: The Quest For Answers 20 The Birth of the Gods ......................................................133 (How an impossible quest for "causes" of important events led to superstition and religion.. "If there were no gods it would be necessary to invent one." Examples of lingering superstition.) 21 Silly Science ....................................................................139 (The evolution of "metaphysics" and the search for God.) 22 The Meaning of Meaning and Vice Versa .......................144 (The endless quest for Meaning, and a simple way to put an end to it.) 23 May I Rattle Your Chain? ...............................................153 (Why it is politically incorrect to ridicule religion.) 24 Déjà Vu—All Over Again ................................................155 (The many gods and many names of God. So many creeds and contradictions, yet we maintain the fiction that there is no god but God.) 25 YaHWeH .........................................................................165 (The origins of Jehovah and his curious misadventures.) 26 Portrait of God as a Young Man ......................................175 (A 20th century version of what we know of Jesus and his followers.) 27 The Anointing of Joshua ..................................................185 (The life and times of St. Paul, early years of Christianity, and the miracle of Constantine.) 28 Enuf Awreddy! ................................................................195 (A plea that politicians stop their cynical exploitation of the naively religious.) 29 So Help Me, God .............................................................201 (What's right and wrong with religion.) 30 Gimme That Ole Time Religion ......................................205 (Morality according to the Old Testament has simply got to go!) 31 Ghost Stories .....................................................................211 (Angels, and the evolution of the Soul.) Part Five: Could Love Be The Answer? Introduction to Part Five: “SEX is a Four-Letter Word” .......219 32 Love, Love, Love ...............................................................221 (Falling In Love: How it happens, why it happens.) 33 Cat Tales ..........................................................................223 (Mating, and other irresistible urges.) 34 The Chemistry of Love ....................................................227 (Reproductive cycles throughout the plant and animal kingdoms. Environmental triggers and chemical responses. Pheromones and other signals. The differing roles of males and females. Only humans give mixed signals?) 35 Female Adultery, The Male View ...................................231 (Of men and male gorillas, a genetic explanation of why it makes them crazy when they know their mate is with another male.) 36 Male Adultery, The Female View ...................................239 (Do women really mind if their husbands get a little "strange stuff" now and then, or is it something more important than that?) 37 Pacem in Terris—A Letter From a Reader: .....................249 (Vince asks why I never say anything good about people, so I do.) 38 Puppy Love .......................................................................251 (Dogs & people: Adoration & devotion.) 39 Devotion ..........................................................................253 (Growing accustomed to a face, the love that develops from a long and favorable history of tit-for-tat.) 40 True Love ........................................................................255 (Learning to love, opposed to falling in love. How deep affection comes about and how it displays itself.) APPENDIX: Comments, Summaries, and Conclusions ...259 A life unexamined is not worth living. Socrates Introduction — Our genetic strain parted company with our chimpanzee cous- ins about seven million years ago, probably because it embarrassed us to see them scooting about on all four legs. We then embarked on a multimillion-year experiment of add- ing brain cells to our cerebrum. By the time we achieved certification as Homo sapiens we had added more than two pounds of gray matter atop our perfectly adequate chimpanzee brain. That point was reached about a hundred and twenty thousand years ago, give or take. Since that time we have developed symbolic languages that very few of us ever master, abstract thought that is used mostly for considering problems that nobody really cares about, methods of food production that result in enormous surpluses that are fed to automobiles rather than to the billions of humans who are perpetu- ally hungry, and weapons that are capable of blowing us all to kingdom come in the blink of an eye. Looking on the bright side, it also should be noted that we