Author: Curt Doolittle

http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2015/10/my_simplistic_t.htmlTHE SIMPLEST THEORY OF LEFT AND RIGHT

Brian,

As you say, evolutionary biology provides greatest explanatory power.

REPRODUCTIVE STRATEGIES

(1) FEMALE: The female reproductive strategy is to bear children at will and to place responsibility for their sustenance on the tribe. The female’s interest is to secure a future for her offspring regardless of merit. Her interest is in consumption regardless of externality.

(2) MALE: The male reproductive strategy is to form alliances of near relations of males (brothers) into the strongest possible tribe and to secure their territory against (parasitic) competition. The male’s interest is to secure the competitive persistence of his kin (tribe) which depends upon merit. His interest is in capital accumulation.

Human males evolved to kill off males in opposing groups and collect females. And that females evolved to place greater emphasis on children and females than the tribe (males).

CLASSES

Social Classes are sorted by reproductive desirability. Economic classes largely reflect social classes. Rotation is limited out of economic classes for this reason. And the lower classes increasingly vote the female reproductive strategy for the same reason females do.

WEAPONS OF INFLUENCE

There are only three weapons of influence :

(1) Violence (ostracism, punishment, death)

(2) Remuneration (compensation, trade)

(3) Gossip (rallying and shaming – threats of deprivation from association, cooperation, affection, and sex)

MORAL INTUITIONS AS PROPERTY RIGHTS

Of Haidt’s evolutionary origins of moral intuitions, three can be expressed as individual property rights:

1. Care/harm for others, protecting them from harm. (The asset of life and body.)

2. Proportionality/cheating, Justice, treating others in proportion to their actions. (The asset of goods.)

3. Liberty/Oppression, characterizes judgments in terms of whether subjects are tyrannized. (The asset of time, opportunity.)

And three others can be expressed as community property rights covering social capital. Which obviously enough, have been, and continue to be, mirrored in corporate shareholder agreements.

4. In-Group Loyalty/In-Group Betrayal to/of your group, family, nation, polity.

5. Respect/Authority/Subversion for tradition and legitimate authority.

6. Purity/Sanctity/Degradation/Disgust, avoiding disgusting things, foods, actions.

SUMMARY

Conservatives represent the more reproductively desirable and masculine spectrum. Leftists represent the more reproductively undesirable and feminine spectrum.

IN THE DATA

This explains the voting data in which white males and married females vote predominantly RED(tribe), while single females and minorities vote left(Self).

The south’s anti-republicanism from the civil war obscured this trend, but the end of that divide led to the increasing polarization of the electorate.

WE NEGOTIATE ON BEHALF OF OUR GENES

And we use Violence, Remuneration, and Gossip to acquire resources on our gene’s behalf. Everything we say is the result of our reproductive strategy.

That’s the simple answer.

Curt Doolittle

The Propertarian Institute

Kiev, Ukraine