Is politics primal? page

[kenn]

Watched a rousing debate on TV tonight.

[Wildrose]

Erm... what? This is getting a little weird.

[Bosnic]

Is trolling primal?

[JoanieL]

I think Grok was probably more direct than today's politicians. Might made right and the best hunter, father, etc. was the respected leader (in my mind). Today's politician wins either because he can manipulate the media to make him look "better" than his opponent or because he's the lesser of two evils.

So in my mind, politcs is the antithesis of primal. It's the aristrocracy of pull rather than the aristrocracy of strength.

[JWBooth]

I think anytime politics gets too far beyond the community level, it ceases to be primal. A centralized state is a consequence of grain based agriculture. The two buffoons that took the stage tonight pretending to "debate" each other are quite literally the Satan spawns of the SAD diet. Grok organized his socio-political structure around a band or tribe, and would have scoffed at the notion that men thousands of miles away, who knew nothing of either him his tribe could claim authority over his life.

[Wildrose]

Is trolling primal?

Trolls hiding under bridges, eating bad little children... hey, that would be primal, wouldn't it?

[DavidBrennan]

Just the opposite: politics came about as a result of agricultural societies. Hunter gatherers solve problems individually, appoint leaders on an ad hoc basis, and generally defer from the sort of servile prostration to powerful people that hyper-politicized modern Americans love to do.

Discussed in detail in 'Guns, Germs, and Steel'.

[wiltondeportes]

Say you happen upon tremendous bush of wild grapes. You can't believe your luck because of their ripeness, so you start eating. A couple minutes later, you hear some rustling, and a large adult black bear appears all of a sudden. Would you prefer to solve this problem individually, or would you agree that politicking the bear might be a sound idea?

[Damiana]

Surfing the Internet and making posts about whether _____ is primal is definitely not primal.

[primalrob]

i'm going to go ahead and say, yes, politics are primal.

use your brain is one of the ten primal laws. and while i think a lot of the politics people watch are ridiculously divisive, possibly damaging to society, and shouldn't be viewed by anyone who lacks critical thinking skills, when it comes down to it, it's all about our families and neighbors, and it should make people think.