Social morality is often used to decelerate innovation and maintain stability
Not only do societies use morality to direct the unknown trajectories of future evolution, but it is also used as a brake against innovation. The shamans, priests etc. define which ideas are “moral” and which are “immoral.” Anything new—anything that will break the tribal cycle, i.e., take us out of cyclical mythic “time” into linear, progressive, revolutionary “time”—is usually defined, very quickly, as “immoral.” To say that religion and priestcraft have played a conservative role in history is an understatement. One might as well say that bubonic plague has killed a few people, or that Hitler was a little bit strange. The chief role of religion has always been reactionary. This is it’s evolutionary function, in the dialectic of the circuitry of the brain.
The semantic circuit, unchecked, is like a cocaine monologue. You can’t remember anything, because everything is changing too fast. This
The rapid innovation that comes with
is profoundly disorienting to the average domesticated primate. So the tribal moralists keep stability and tranquility by acting as decelerators. The average person, similarly, is philosophically most “open” and “curious” before the adult sex role of parenthood is elected. After reproduction, there is little time for semantic circuit speculations, and (because of the sanctions every tribe places upon “heresy,” i.e., new ideas) there is also little inclination. Thus, the semantic circuit tends to take us out of tribal cyclical time into linear progressive time; but the Socio-Sexual Circuit loops us back into the cycle again. Homosexuals may or may not be the chief creators of cultural innovation, as some Gay Pride advocates claim; but it is certainly true that they have done more than their share. The reason? They are not trapped into parent roles.
References
- Wilson, A., Robert. (1983). Prometheus Rising Chapter 8 The Moral Socio-Sexual Circuit (Location 1521). Grand Junction, Colorado: Hilaritas Press.
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Type:🔴 Tags: Biology / Neuroscience / Sociology / Sociobiology / Psychology / Neuropsychology / Evolutionary Psychology / Politics Status:☀️