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Hasn't Human nature itself been crafted by evolutionary forces? It is conceivable that our ancestors that were more laid back and content were more likely to be

Hasn't Human nature itself been crafted by evolutionary forces? It is conceivable that our ancestors that were more laid back and content were more likely to be out competed by those who were hungry for power and prestige. In fact, as an example, isn't there some often quoted statistic about half a percentage of all living humans having descended from Genghis Khan?

georgeecollins 6y ago
Human nature may be crafted by evolutionary forces, but that doesn't mean that human behavious do is always in service of biological evolution. The idea about people coming from Genghis Khan is unrepresentative in a couple ways. First, that a large number of people have a common ancestor does not mean that the common ancestor was in fact Genghis Khan. It could have been someone else associated with the Mongol conquest. Second, six hundred years from now you or I may have a lot of ancestors, assuming you have kids (I already do). There is nothing remarkable about that.
- bausano_michael 6y ago
  More on this topic in a recent HN submission and its associated discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24686904 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24686904
- mgolawala 6y ago
  Fair point. I see what you are saying. I was focusing on the innate human nature side of things, but I have to agree, the behavior that actually manifests through conspicuous consumption is being heavily influenced by media and advertising.
hinkley 6y ago
I had a libertarian coworker who didn't understand why people didn't just vote with their feet on all of this stuff. The closest I got to explaining it to him is that Advertising as a profession in the US is the successor to WWII psychological warfare. People are being paid to use your instincts and your worst impulses against you. All day. Every day. It started out weaponized, and now it's industrialized. To opt out requires a level of enlightenment (literally and figuratively) that few invest in, and some doubt they could achieve even if it were a priority. We have black hat hackers attacking our brains, and only occasionally do the white hat hackers get any sort of publicity, and some of those have less substance but are more approachable than the real experts. These people are almost always standing on the shoulders of giants, and thus their work feels derivative (eg, Marie Kondo), which is off-putting to people. Their style-over-substance makes them in effect hyper-palatable people, which is a form of cognitive dissonance with the message.
deleted 6y ago
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georgeecollins 6y ago

Human nature may be crafted by evolutionary forces, but that doesn't mean that human behavious do is always in service of biological evolution. The idea about people coming from Genghis Khan is unrepresentative in a couple ways. First, that a large number of people have a common ancestor does not mean that the common ancestor was in fact Genghis Khan. It could have been someone else associated with the Mongol conquest. Second, six hundred years from now you or I may have a lot of ancestors, assuming you have kids (I already do). There is nothing remarkable about that.

bausano_michael 6y ago
More on this topic in a recent HN submission and its associated discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24686904 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24686904
mgolawala 6y ago
Fair point. I see what you are saying. I was focusing on the innate human nature side of things, but I have to agree, the behavior that actually manifests through conspicuous consumption is being heavily influenced by media and advertising.

hinkley 6y ago

I had a libertarian coworker who didn't understand why people didn't just vote with their feet on all of this stuff. The closest I got to explaining it to him is that Advertising as a profession in the US is the successor to WWII psychological warfare. People are being paid to use your instincts and your worst impulses against you. All day. Every day. It started out weaponized, and now it's industrialized. To opt out requires a level of enlightenment (literally and figuratively) that few invest in, and some doubt they could achieve even if it were a priority. We have black hat hackers attacking our brains, and only occasionally do the white hat hackers get any sort of publicity, and some of those have less substance but are more approachable than the real experts. These people are almost always standing on the shoulders of giants, and thus their work feels derivative (eg, Marie Kondo), which is off-putting to people. Their style-over-substance makes them in effect hyper-palatable people, which is a form of cognitive dissonance with the message.

deleted 6y ago

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