Occidental Observer, March 17, 2013
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A frequent preoccupation of our ilk (TOO) is why Europeans and N. Americans of Euro stock have so easily allowed Europe and N. America to be invaded by so many immigrants from around the world. After all, it’s not as though they first sent armies to conquer us, à la Genghis Khan. The Indians were over-run, too, but they lacked firepower if not the desire to defend their territories. We have had plenty of firepower but little desire to protect our interests. Why?
An interesting take on the matter may reside in the 2000 book by Geoffrey Miller, The Mating Mind, the relevance of which, for our purposes, will take several steps to show. The book is an exceedingly entertaining and amusing analysis of many features of human and other animals’ behavior from the standpoint of “sexual selection.” Charles Darwin discussed this extensively and Miller provides a grand opportunity for practicing “selection thinking” in that regard. Males choose females and females choose males for reproduction. What they choose is what gets reproduced, at least if it’s genetically influenced. The peacock’s tail is the classic example. It’s very costly to grow and it’s a handicap in defending against predators. But they grow them anyway because peahens found them attractive (for unknown reasons locked in their little heads, i.e., some sort of “sensory bias”). The more peahens liked them, the more males were “selected” for growing them, and the more peahens were “selected” for liking them — since their daughters would be best off being attracted to the most successful males, i.e., those with the “best tails.” As long as the sexual reproductive advantages outweighed the costs of big tails, there would have been a sort of “runaway” selection for big tails.
While the selection could be just an arbitrary result of a quirky sensory bias, a less surprising basis for sexual selection is “fitness indication,” a cue for especially good health and reproductive capacity. What males often find attractive in a female can be seen as an indication of her good health and ability to bear healthy children. But a “handicap” can function as a “fitness indicator” by, in effect, demonstrating that if the male peacock can afford to have such a big tail, he must be really something!
Now then, what do humans value in a mate? Personality traits are important and Miller is convinced that human “morality”, related as it seems to be to personality, is
a direct result of sexual selection. We have the capacity for moral behavior and moral judgments today because our ancestors favored sexual partners who were kind, generous, helpful, and fair. We still have the same preferences. David Buss’s study of global sexual preferences found that ‘kindness’ was the single most important feature desired in a sexual partner by both men and women in every one of the 37 cultures he studied. It ranked above intelligence, above beauty, and above status. (p. 292)
Well, if a potential sexual partner wants kindness, one had bloody well better demonstrate kindness. How? By being kind to her/him. But also demonstrating kindness in all sorts of other situations, including situations that indicate a trait that is not just manifested when one wants to get someone into bed. Charity! Showing sympathy for the poor and the down-trodden! Supporting their immigration to the West to escape their economic and political situation. And of course the more one genuinely, unconsciously, feels sympathy, the more convincing is one’s demonstration of kindness; hence a selection for actually feeling sympathy and not just pretending to have it. A person who genuinely felt sympathy would be quite willing to undergo costs in time, safety, money and other handicaps to help those who are oppressed. Why? Ultimately in order to impress the opposite sex, because if it weren't for that, selection would surely operate strongly against such unselfish behavior, according to Darwinists given that one is not helping kin and not expecting any sort of reciprocity. ...
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