Curt Doolittle

Theme: Civilization

  • What Is It Like To Live In Bellevue, Wa?

    Bellevue is one of the top three or four cities to live in, in America if you’re in the upper middle class.  Which is a decidedly unambiguous ‘if’.

    The first thing to get out of the way is the weather.  First, if you watch movies filmed in Seattle or Vancouver Canada, notice how little yellow is in the light. It’s grey here. Aways.  Second, we have wind storms in the fall that take down our pine trees like a locust harvest, and they in turn take down power lines for days or weeks at a time. Third, Seattle never experienced the small farm phase of the eighteenth and nineteenth century so there aren’t side roads, villages, and ‘other ways’ of getting anywhere. Traffic can be brutal.  Lastly, and most importantly, Bellevue’s most popular drugs are anti depressants and hemorrhoid prescriptions. Why? The rain is absolutely devastating for anyone who is not acclimated to it, or predisposed to perpetual cheerfulness. If it rains for one hundred days and it’s grey it will absolutely demoralize most people to the point where they sit around all day without motivation.  This can only be countered with physical exercise. If the correlation between weather and outdoor recreation here isn’t obvous then hopefully this makes it clear to you. If you are not predisposed toward outdoor activity this is not a good place to live unless you love a life bound by pharmaceuticals.

    The next thing is the geography.  It is absolutely beautiful. It is also really, really, really far from the rest of the country.  Other than driving to Portland, which is four hours away, it literally takes DAYS, not hours, DAYS of driving to get out of the northwest.  I’ve lived in Boston and seen a Museum show in the morning and been at party in new york city that night. That doesn’t happen out here. If you don’t like mountains and trails then this is a very bad place to live – because that’s all there is.

    Dating.  There are more males in the northwest than females, and while it’s single digits, it’s pretty obvious single digits. If you are a woman, men here are more nerdy or casual than they are masculine.  Women are, shall we say, outside of Bellevue anyway, more likely to be wearing sandals and a t shirt and no makeup than any other form of dress.  People do not ‘dress up’ at night eitehr.  I pretty much live in jeans and a sport jacket and I’m usually one of the bettter dressed people. Like every city in america there is one woman who does exclusive matchmaking. And this statement from her is telling: “in twenty years I have never matched a Seattle man to a Seattle woman’.  The meaning of that statement is profound – women have to be imported now, just like they were for Seattle’s lumberjacks – albiet less crassly.  The concept of ‘cultured’ in Seattle is definitely west coast, meaning ‘unassuming and inoffensive’ it does not mean ‘possessed of knowelge about the arts and letters”.  As someone who is traditionally ‘cultured’ I had a very hard time adapting to the northwest culture.

    The northwest was irrelevant during the period of industrial migration, so it never experienced the immigration of diversity that has led to such conflict,  crime and decay in the industrial centers from Minneapolis to Boston, nor did it experience the historical problems from Chicago to the south.  Because of this, Seattle is still the second or third whitest city in america. And whether it is politic to say or not, that means that it’s a pretty calm and perhaps boring place to live, that is absent endemic class, race and cultural warfare.

    The one obvious thing that is disappearing is the remainder of the ‘hippie’ movement of the sixties and seventies.  This group, and their culture, and the goth type cultures that followed them, are pretty evident here.

    Boeing imported a culture of engineers, and Microsoft imported a culture of technologists. Bellevue/Redmond/Seattle is sort of like living in Cambridge without the incessant poverty, malcontents, tourists and students. Until recently, Seattle had the highest per capita consumption of non fiction books in the country. Nerds need something to do in the rain.

    Moreover, Microsoft gave more of its profits to employees than any company in history, and quite possibly more than all companies in history combined. This combination of upper middle class engineers, immigrant engineers from India and Asia, and a cost of housing that prohibits the entry of ‘undesirables’ has created an interesting artificial economy – a sort of ‘green zone’ that really exists nowhere else other than perhaps, a little more radically in Austin Texas.

    The lakes and bridges separate Seattle culture (more urban) from Bellevue culture (more upper middle class).  This means one has access to downtown Seattle (which is decreasing in importance as bellevue restaurants are now as good or better) but keeps the rabble at a distance.

    Microsoft is a company in decline and while it is an unspoken truth, everyone carries on with the pretense that it isn’t Steve Ballmer’s fault (it is).    But service in stores is fantastic because the guy with messy hair and jeans might be worth ten million.  And everyone including the incompetent politicians in Redmond who have doomed their town with planning and debt, carry on as if the emperor had clothes.

    A town can be judged by its car dealerships and Bellevue has one of the largest and most popular exotic car dealerships in America (They sold my Ferrari for me).  Seattle has a Ferrari/Maserati dealer, and Bellevue has everything including a Porsche dealer that has to keep a lot full of back-stock to keep up with demand, as well as lotus, Bentley and Aston Martin Dealerships, as well as Jaguar Land Rover and the commong german brands of Mercedes, BMW and Audi.  You have to leave town to find an American car dealership.  

    The mall is a family run enterprise, and a good one,  and the downtown core is owned by a local. Cops are unnecessarily strict and are not above giving tickets just to raise department revenue.  The city has grown a lot and I’m not sure it’s been for the good.  The parks in Bellevue  and the rapid access to every outdoor activity you can imagine means that you can actually take your kids out of the house in relative safety an get them exhausted enough to let you sleep at night.

    And that is the reason to live there.

    https://www.quora.com/What-is-it-like-to-live-in-Bellevue-WA

  • Has There Been A Decline In Civility In America?

    YES.  See “Coming Apart”, and the surveys on trust, and the measurements of civic participation of all forms. 

    As diversity increases, government increases, and civility, and civil participation decrease. 

    It has to.  Signals require that does.

    https://www.quora.com/Has-there-been-a-decline-in-civility-in-America

  • In A Hundred Years Time, What Do You Think People Will Consider To Be The Great Moral Failure Of Our Era? For The Purposes Of This Question, Let Us Define ‘our Era’ As 2000-2013.

    I WILL TRY TO GIVE  YOU A BETTER ANSWER

    1) Hayek argued that the 20th centuries and its wars would be remembered as an era of mysticism ushered in by Marx and Freud, culminating in the reliigon of Postmodernism (liberalism) – the most recent incarnation of Zoroastrianism – saying false things repeatedly in order to achieve one’s ends.  We have been fighting against this religion in science and technology for a few decades now, and this misdirection, starting in the 60’s and achieving it’s heights in the 1970’s, has consumed much of the research time in academia.

    2) it appears that this battle has resulted in a considerable number of insights into technology.  But, as our economy crumbles from having consumed the last wave of technological innovation (information technology), progress on research and development continues.

    3) The wildcard is the great upheavals that will happen in the world as western technological superiority for the past 500 years is neutralized by the adoption of consumer capitalism worldwide, and inexpensive labor in previously unindustrialized countries, lowers the RELATIVE advantage of western countries.  THe primary advantage the northern european countries had, as did the anglo countires founded by the british empire, was that the high trust society of the out-bred families (nation as a family) created a homogenous enough culture that this commercial trust could create extraordinary competitive organizations.  I suspect that the cultures that come to dominate these areas will not perpetuate the high trust society and the nuclear family for cultural reasons, and that the continued decline in the nuclear family will do the same. So that the only material cultural advantage of the west will be lost.

    4) The reason you cannot judge moral consequences in the future is that morality is a product of the reproductive strategy of people at later times, under later technologies, using later political organizations, and they tend to demonize things that are convenient, not true.  For example, aristocracy and manorialism were very important to western development  as was the church.  WIthout these institutions we could not have achieved our technical advantage over the rest of the world.  We demonized the monarchies in order to sieze power.  But there is very little evidence that supports any of our claims about victorian industrial evils or evils of kings and princes. In fact, the evidence is pretty much the other direction.  SO if we demonize things that were good, and we still admire things that aer terribly evil (socialism and communism) then why should we thing that there is a rational basis for future moral contrivances, other than whatever convenience suits their cause at the time?

    Hopefully this provides some thought and context. I suspect hayek will be correct amongst intellectuals if he is remembered for it.  Otherwise, it is just as likely that they will think were are stupid for our form of social security instead of the singaporean – for purely logical reasons.   Why didn’t we adopt the singaporean model of social security?  It might be that they accuse us of doing it for relgious reasons – and they would be right.

    https://www.quora.com/In-a-hundred-years-time-what-do-you-think-people-will-consider-to-be-the-great-moral-failure-of-our-era-For-the-purposes-of-this-question-let-us-define-our-era-as-2000-2013

  • CIVILIZATION vs DE-CIVILIZATION CIVILIZATION Is the long historical process of e

    CIVILIZATION vs DE-CIVILIZATION

    CIVILIZATION

    Is the long historical process of escaping the equalitarian tyranny of the feminine, matrilineal order by gradual implementation of individual property rights, thereby forcing all involuntary transfers into the market for goods and services, and returning males to reproductive freedom.

    DE-CIVILIZATION

    is the rapid process of returning to the equalitarian tyranny of the feminine matrilineal order of communitarian property, and the subjugation of male reproductive freedom.

    OMG. Did I just say that?

    Yes. Yes I did. Even with my outside voice. lol.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-04-06 09:46:00 UTC

  • Values And Principles: Has The Fact That The Us Has Never Apologized To The Innocent People It Has Imprisoned And Tortured Affected Our Society?

    What has affected our society was the world wars, and our loss of self confidence that resulted from it.  Our civilization has spent time, treasure and blood to drag the rest of humanity kicking and screaming out of universal ignorance, mysticism and endemic poverty. And we are still dragging the one primitive civilization remaining, kicking and screaming, out of ignorance and poverty.

    Why havent the communists apologized for murdering 100 Million people in the last century?  Why haven’t the socialists apologized for the suffering they caused? Why hasn’t the rest of the world created ‘Western Civilization Appreciation Day” for saving them from disease, hunger, murder, ignorance and mysticism?

    I don’t know.  But that is what has affected our society. That is its malaise.

    https://www.quora.com/Values-and-Principles-Has-the-fact-that-the-US-has-never-apologized-to-the-innocent-people-it-has-imprisoned-and-tortured-affected-our-society

  • CONSERVATISM AND THE ANIMAL “RIGHTS” MOVEMENT (chapter excerpt) Conservative vie

    CONSERVATISM AND THE ANIMAL “RIGHTS” MOVEMENT

    (chapter excerpt)

    Conservative view of man’s relation to nature is heroic:

    That nature is ours to modify for our benefit.

    That nature is capricious and something we must pacify for our safety.

    That the purpose of man’s life is to leave the world better for having lived in it.

    This is an heroic view of man that is as ancient as the indo-european peoples.

    Meaning:

    (a) animals do not have ‘rights’ – this is an absurdity – they are not human. In conservatism (which means “european aristocratic egalitarianism”). Even humans must ‘earn’ rights – which is why we take them away if they misbehave. Animals can’t earn rights. (perhaps dogs to some minor degree.)

    (b) that we should care for animals because we desire to, because our world is better to live in if we have them. True. This is the logical reasoning, not ‘rights’.

    (c) that disregard for animals that we have normatively chosen to care for, and which are under our control,

    (d) that laziness in caring for animals is likely laziness in caring for people. True.

    (e) that cruelty to animals is likely cruelty to humans – and therefore you are unfit to live among humans. True.

    Unfortunately, this is an argument to NORMS: demonstrating the human character necessary to possess ‘rights’. Conservatives place extremely high value on norms. Progressives do not. The progressive movement is largely an attack on conservative (aristocratic egalitarian) norms. And the progressive movement has managed to, at least in education and other major areas of life, discredit norms. And therefore the progressive movement has lost the ability to market policy that requires adherence to norms. And therefore has, out of necessity, used the specious argument of ‘rights’, because it is the only means of justifying legal action that they have available to them.

    Of course, what may not be obvious is that:

    (a) it is not possible for animals to possess rights – a right is something that can be reciprocally granted and animals cannot conceive of this (except perhaps for domesticated dogs..)

    (b) that the word “right” is an attempt to load, or frame, animals anthropomorphically. in order to misrepresent the normative utility of protecting animals as a resource, as one open to legal rather than normative control. In other words, it’s common marketing fraud.

    (c) that caretaking, even anthropomorpized caretaking, provides women with oxcytocin reactions, and that many females are addicted to this reaction. It is not rational. It is drug addiction. It’s just relatively harmless drug addiction. So our political policy is being driven by logically confused drug addicts using a deceptive marketing campaign, not reason. In which case we would simply sell off the management of wild animals to private firms who would specialize in it and figure out how to make it profitable (the way we have with deer hunting in america).

    (d) that the female psyche evolved, and cooperation evolved, as a means of controlling alphas by gossip, complaint and excitement, to motivate the non-alpha males to organize against, and punish or kill the alphas, so that the females could control their own breeding rather than be the mere victims of alphas. And that there is a significant correlation between the female members of the animal rights movement and their reproductive status.

    (e) That the anti-fur movement is absurd, and counter to the benefit of animals and man. It is a renewable resource. It encourages the protection of the species. It is inexpensive. It is excellent protection against the cold, and it’s beautiful. This same argument applies to hunting. And to wild animals. Because if wild animals were ‘owned’ rather than a ‘commons’ owners would protect them far better than governments do – just like we do with domesticated animals.

    This is a fairly damning critique of REASONING USED by the animal rights movement. It is not however a critique of the conservative normative proscription.

    The conservative (aristocratic egalitarian) proscription is that if you do not care for animals as if they are the commons that they are, and a commons that we have assumed responsibilty for from nature, that you have not EARNED the right from other humans to administer that commons on their behalf, and therefore they will withdraw your rights, which they reciprocally grant you, because you are unfit to live with rights, among others, who have them.

    Conservatives are rational but their moral code is ancient and they speak of it in metaphorical terms not suitable for an era where scientific language has all but replaced metaphor. And this is why I write philosophy – to repair conservatism (aristocratic egalitarianism) by articulating it rationally.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-03-29 02:57:00 UTC

  • Who Are More Likely To Respect Animal Rights: Conservatives Or Liberals?

    Conservative view of man’s relation to nature is heroic:
    That nature is ours to modify for our benefit.
    That nature is capricious and something we must pacify for our safety.
    That the purpose of man’s life is to leave the world better for having lived in it.
    This is an heroic view of man that is as ancient as the indo-european peoples.

    Meaning:
    (a) animals do not have ‘rights’ – this is an absurdity – they are not human. In conservatism (which means “european aristocratic egalitarianism”). Even humans must ‘earn’ rights – which is why we take them away if they misbehave.  Animals can’t earn rights. (perhaps dogs to some minor degree.)
    (b) that we should care for animals because we desire to, because our world is better to live in if we have them. True. This is the logical reasoning, not ‘rights’.
    (c) that disregard for animals that we have normatively chosen to care for, and which are under our control,
    (d) that laziness in caring for animals is likely laziness in caring for people. True.
    (e) that cruelty to animals is likely cruelty to humans – and therefore you are unfit to live among humans. True.

    Unfortunately, this is an argument to NORMS: demonstrating the human character necessary to possess ‘rights’.  Conservatives place extremely high value on norms. Progressives do not.  The progressive movement is largely an attack on conservative (aristocratic egalitarian) norms. And the progressive movement has managed to, at least in education and other major areas of life, discredit norms.  And therefore the progressive movement has lost the ability to market policy that requires adherence to norms.  And therefore has, out of necessity, used the specious argument of ‘rights’, because it is the only means of justifying legal action that they have available to them.

    Of course, what may not be obvious is that:
    (a) it is not possible for animals to possess rights – a right is something that can be reciprocally granted and animals cannot conceive of this (except perhaps for domesticated dogs..)
    (b) that the word “right” is an attempt to load, or frame, animals anthropomorphically. in order to misrepresent the normative utility of protecting animals as a resource, as one open to legal rather than normative control.  In other words, it’s common marketing fraud.
    (c) that caretaking, even anthropomorpized caretaking, provides women with oxcytocin reactions, and that many females are addicted to this reaction. It is not rational. It is drug addiction. It’s just relatively harmless drug addiction. So our political policy is being driven by logically confused drug addicts using a deceptive marketing campaign, not reason.  In which case we would simply sell off the management of wild animals to private firms who would specialize in it and figure out how to make it profitable (the way we have with deer hunting in america).
    (d) that the female psyche evolved, and cooperation evolved, as a means of controlling alphas by gossip, complaint and excitement, to motivate the non-alpha males to organize against, and punish or kill the alphas, so that the females could control their own breeding rather than be the mere victims of alphas.  And that there is a significant correlation between the female members of the animal rights movement and their reproductive status.
    (e) That the anti-fur movement is absurd, and counter to the benefit of animals and man. It is a renewable resource. It encourages the protection of the species. It is inexpensive.  It is excellent protection against the cold, and it’s beautiful.   This same argument applies to hunting. And to wild animals. Because if wild animals were ‘owned’ rather than a ‘commons’ owners would protect them far better than governments do – just like we do with domesticated animals.

    This is a fairly damning critique of REASONING USED by the animal rights movement.  It is not however a critique of the conservative normative proscription. 

    The conservative (aristocratic egalitarian) proscription is that if you do not care for animals as if they are the commons that they are, and a commons that we have assumed responsibilty for from nature, that you have not EARNED the right from other humans to administer that commons on their behalf, and therefore they will withdraw your rights, which they reciprocally grant you, because you are unfit to live with rights, among others, who have them.

    Conservatives are rational but their moral code is ancient and they speak of it in metaphorical terms not suitable for an era where scientific language has all but replaced metaphor.  And this is why I write philosophy – to repair conservatism (aristocratic egalitarianism) by articulating it rationally.

    https://www.quora.com/Who-are-more-likely-to-respect-animal-rights-conservatives-or-liberals

  • Who Are More Likely To Respect Animal Rights: Conservatives Or Liberals?

    Conservative view of man’s relation to nature is heroic:
    That nature is ours to modify for our benefit.
    That nature is capricious and something we must pacify for our safety.
    That the purpose of man’s life is to leave the world better for having lived in it.
    This is an heroic view of man that is as ancient as the indo-european peoples.

    Meaning:
    (a) animals do not have ‘rights’ – this is an absurdity – they are not human. In conservatism (which means “european aristocratic egalitarianism”). Even humans must ‘earn’ rights – which is why we take them away if they misbehave.  Animals can’t earn rights. (perhaps dogs to some minor degree.)
    (b) that we should care for animals because we desire to, because our world is better to live in if we have them. True. This is the logical reasoning, not ‘rights’.
    (c) that disregard for animals that we have normatively chosen to care for, and which are under our control,
    (d) that laziness in caring for animals is likely laziness in caring for people. True.
    (e) that cruelty to animals is likely cruelty to humans – and therefore you are unfit to live among humans. True.

    Unfortunately, this is an argument to NORMS: demonstrating the human character necessary to possess ‘rights’.  Conservatives place extremely high value on norms. Progressives do not.  The progressive movement is largely an attack on conservative (aristocratic egalitarian) norms. And the progressive movement has managed to, at least in education and other major areas of life, discredit norms.  And therefore the progressive movement has lost the ability to market policy that requires adherence to norms.  And therefore has, out of necessity, used the specious argument of ‘rights’, because it is the only means of justifying legal action that they have available to them.

    Of course, what may not be obvious is that:
    (a) it is not possible for animals to possess rights – a right is something that can be reciprocally granted and animals cannot conceive of this (except perhaps for domesticated dogs..)
    (b) that the word “right” is an attempt to load, or frame, animals anthropomorphically. in order to misrepresent the normative utility of protecting animals as a resource, as one open to legal rather than normative control.  In other words, it’s common marketing fraud.
    (c) that caretaking, even anthropomorpized caretaking, provides women with oxcytocin reactions, and that many females are addicted to this reaction. It is not rational. It is drug addiction. It’s just relatively harmless drug addiction. So our political policy is being driven by logically confused drug addicts using a deceptive marketing campaign, not reason.  In which case we would simply sell off the management of wild animals to private firms who would specialize in it and figure out how to make it profitable (the way we have with deer hunting in america).
    (d) that the female psyche evolved, and cooperation evolved, as a means of controlling alphas by gossip, complaint and excitement, to motivate the non-alpha males to organize against, and punish or kill the alphas, so that the females could control their own breeding rather than be the mere victims of alphas.  And that there is a significant correlation between the female members of the animal rights movement and their reproductive status.
    (e) That the anti-fur movement is absurd, and counter to the benefit of animals and man. It is a renewable resource. It encourages the protection of the species. It is inexpensive.  It is excellent protection against the cold, and it’s beautiful.   This same argument applies to hunting. And to wild animals. Because if wild animals were ‘owned’ rather than a ‘commons’ owners would protect them far better than governments do – just like we do with domesticated animals.

    This is a fairly damning critique of REASONING USED by the animal rights movement.  It is not however a critique of the conservative normative proscription. 

    The conservative (aristocratic egalitarian) proscription is that if you do not care for animals as if they are the commons that they are, and a commons that we have assumed responsibilty for from nature, that you have not EARNED the right from other humans to administer that commons on their behalf, and therefore they will withdraw your rights, which they reciprocally grant you, because you are unfit to live with rights, among others, who have them.

    Conservatives are rational but their moral code is ancient and they speak of it in metaphorical terms not suitable for an era where scientific language has all but replaced metaphor.  And this is why I write philosophy – to repair conservatism (aristocratic egalitarianism) by articulating it rationally.

    https://www.quora.com/Who-are-more-likely-to-respect-animal-rights-conservatives-or-liberals

  • LATE OUTBREEDING. RECENT SERFDOM. DIVERSITY. The low trust in eastern europe

    http://hbdchick.wordpress.com/2013/03/17/russians-easterneuropeans-runs-of-homozygosity-roh-and-inbreeding/LOW, LATE OUTBREEDING. RECENT SERFDOM. DIVERSITY.

    The low trust in eastern europe.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-03-23 21:31:00 UTC

  • On Cultures as Competing Portfolios Of Property Rights

    CULTURE noun ˈkəl-chər KUHL-churEtymology Middle English (denoting a cultivated piece of land): the noun from French culture or directly from Latin cultura ‘growing, cultivation’; the verb from obsolete French culturer or medieval Latin culturare, both based on Latin colere ‘tend, cultivate’ (see cultivate). In late Middle English the sense was ‘cultivation of the soil’ and from this (early 16th century), arose ‘cultivation (of the mind, faculties, or manners’); culture (sense 1 of the noun) dates from the early 19th century. AlsoCULT (n.) (1) 1610s, “worship,” also “a particular form of worship,” from French culte (17c.), from Latin cultus “care, labor; cultivation, culture; worship, reverence,” originally “tended, cultivated,” pp. of colere “to till” (see colony). Rare after 17c.; revived mid-19c. with reference to ancient or primitive rituals. Meaning “devotion to a person or thing” is from 1829. (2) Cult. An organized group of people, religious or not, with whom you disagree. [Rawson] CULTURE: DEFINITIONS1) : SYSTEM OF ASSUMPTIONS, GOALS, PROPERTY RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS, RITUALS AND SIGNALS WHICH CAN AND ARE TRANSMITTED BETWEEN GENERATIONS.(a) Webster: “the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior learned and transmitted knowledge to succeeding generations.” (b) Propertarianism: “a set of suppositions about the nature of man, and his preferred and necessary relation to others, and to nature. The myths that convey those relations, and attach positive and negative values to them. The property rights that codify and enforce those relations in daily life. The Gender Biases, Mating Rituals, Childrearing Rituals, Feast Rituals, Celebratory Rituals, Group Identity Signals such as dress, and learned food choice and preparation preferences. All of which can and must be learned and transmitted to succeeding generations, and which can and do survive transmission to succeeding generations. 2) : CULTURED Knowledge of or Mastery of, the cannon of the most well-crafted examples of History, Letters, and Arts, produced by members of that culture, which celebrate that culture, and demonstrating, and therefore, signaling, the Morals, ethics and manners, of those most well crafted examples. 3) SUBCULTURE (By Analogy), shortened to CULTURE by abbreviation, loading and analogy: A set of STATUS SIGNALS – the competing suppositions, myths, values, property rights, rituals and signals, of a racial (Genetic inter-temporal relations), religious (normative inter-temporal relations), or social group (generational, class, geographic, or occupational relations); 4) BY ANALOGY: POPULAR CULTURE (by analogy): A cyclical preference for a) inexpensive status signals used to illustrate coming of age, b) inexpensive status signals used to demonstrate group membership in order to create opportunities for entertainment, association, occupation or mating created by the set of goods and services marketed to people who are coming of age, participating in mating and child-rearing as well as early career development.

    CULTURES CONSIST OF A PORTFOLIO OF PROPERTY RIGHTS

    CULTURAL PORTFOLIOS ARE INTERGENERATIONAL DEVICES FOR CONVEYING RULES OF ACTION, AND SIGNALS ABOUT FITNESS OF INDIVIDUALS WITHIN GROUPS MAKING USE OF THOSE RULES, THAT FACILITATE COOPERATION, WHERE COOPERATION TAKES PLACE ACCORDING TO A SET OF ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT MAN AND NATURE. [C]ultures consist of a set of myths and norms that determine the goals and limits of human action within each cultural group.. These myths and norms compose a ‘program’ consisting of a world-view about man’s relation to the universe, a series of myths, rituals and habits that reinforce that world view, and a set of property rights and obligations that by habituation rather than intent, survived generations of use in daily life and evolved to perpetuate that world view. While it is true that much cultural content is fungible, it is also true that much of it is not. That which is not, is what is unstated by the myths and traditions but which is a common assumption or implication throughout. In earlier centuries, there were fewer means of incentive with which to direct people to either cooperate, or to do as some individual or group willed. This is because there are very few means of ‘coercing’ people to cooperate toward a given end:

    • a)
    • b)
    • c)

    Early civilizations were split between the application of force, and the application of mysticism. Eventually, in large part, peoples everywhere in the world created organized means of violence for enforcing some system of property rights, even if they were the most corrupt possible. And religion usually formed a means of opposition to that violence, by determining the limits by which the population would consent to be governed – ie: institutional religion described the boundary of legitimacy, and formed a resistance movement. Wherever successful, the state then adopted that religious limitation and as often as possible took control of the religious institutions as well.

    PORTFOLIOS

    [C]ultures then, are defined by their different “portfolios” of property rights. The composition of, and distribution of those property rights, varies from culture to culture. In each culture, those rights are expressed as norms. Property rights themselves are a norm. Those property rights perpetuated by norms may be more or less beneficial than other portfolios of property rights. But any idiot who thinks that (a) formal institutions don’t matter – such as libertarians or (b) that formal institutions are sufficient – such as progressives, will have history prove him wrong to the chagrin of the people who understand (c) that norms are a form of property – conservatives. Norms are a commons that we all pay for. The tax we pay for them with is forgone opportunity to consume them, and absorbing the risk that no others will absorb them too. Aristocratic Egalitarian Culture (The West) prohibits not just fraud, theft and violence, but the more deceptive versions of fraud: profit from asymmetry of knowledge, and profit from involuntary transfer via externalities. Market competition itself, is an involuntary transfer via externality from people outside of the exchange (competitors). This is why humans naturally object to it, and must be trained to respect and practice competition. But this externality provides instruction and incentive to all in the market, such that we all seek greater variety and lower cost of production. It produces beneficial ends. But it is non-trivial to create the norm of respecting and practicing competition. That’s why so few cultures did it. [R]othbard was wrong. The market isn’t sufficient to maintain the norms against fraud theft and violence, and certainly not against externalities. The marginal impact of reputation in the market is lower than the marginal impact of fraud. That’s why only the west developed the high trust society – by out-breeding such that the entire nation to be an extended family – at least within it’s social classes. Without excessive out-breeding that destroyed the perception of extended family through common physical properties, and common normative behavior. In order to retain the sense of extended family, both physical properties and normative properties must be similiar enough that signaling is consisten within the group, and only class (selection quality) within the extended family differentiates between group members. Trust. The extension of familial trust to all possible exchange partners, by prohibitions on externality and asymmetry, when backed by warranty, is the composition that creates the high – trust society. Only AFTER these informal institutions are enforced by formal institutions, even if only the formal institution of the common law, will trust develop. And with trust, the velocity of trade that makes extraordinary marginal wealth possible for a group, because that group is more competitive than other groups.