daybrown wrote:Primate field studies give us the term, 'alpha male'. Born with the attitude to dominate, and the betas, who sire the females that are less interested in domination and more able to nurture. When a group has too many alphas you get too many chiefs and not enuf Indians.
Nathan Bedford Forrest dominated the Union cavalry columns sent to bring him to bay repeatedly for four long years despite the fact that they were two to four times the size of his modest command. They had more cannon, too. And more forage.
White yeoman farmer culture didnt do alphas any good. There wasnt anybody there to dominate but the wife and kids, and when they took out their violent instincts on them, they were out of the gene pool. The shit really hit the fan for the alphas when the beta farmers figure out how to grow tubers instead of grain. They took what they could carry to hide in the forest, leaving the rest of their turnips buried.
Tubers are the thing to have when Armageddon hits. I'm going to bury a bunch by a back forty duck pond I know for just such a Madd Maxx day. Just ask the Russians, particularly the Ukranians, where the deep loams, reminiscent of the Ozark small grain-growing loams -- forget corn, that's for pigs -- yield on average 2.1 tonnes per hectare -- those poor Napoleanic troops never found them, nor did the Nazis one hundred thirty odd years later. And believe me, the oddest years are still to come. Fiscally speaking.
The alpha men, interested in conquest and the perks of violence ended up starving in armies that had no prey. The necessity of grouping them together for mass attack also killed off lots in plagues- which if you recall, was brought to Europe by a Mongol army that was defeated by that disease.
Demographics. Need I say more? No, I've said enuf.
Then too, we had the Vikings, who traveled widely to conquer in other lands. The alpha males wanted to stay to enjoy the perks of domination. The only men who returned to obscure farms in Scandinavia were the betas with the most robust immune systems. Add it all up, and you have an idea of why the graves of the yeoman farmers show only 5% of the rate of violent assault as seen in the tropical hunting tribe graveyards.
The graves of the yoemens are quite interesting. Yoe-man means yes-man, the original term for corporate boot-licker. Speaking of licker, we've got some bodacious stills here in the mountains around Marshall, and some good lumbermills, too. We're going to do fine with the shinola hits the fan. Global warming? Bring it on. I'll be out at the duck pond, picking my teeth and writing letters with a fine quill pen. Those are the perks.
Now. the other thing about betas, is that unlike alphas, you can get them to sit down, shut up, listen, and follow orders. And the result of that- is alpha dominated military organization that works vastly better. There is no better example than the Greek Phalanx.
I joined a fraternity. Well, actually the Masons. We built some fine walls, and copied the original arches with keystones. It's interesting how the early Mediterranean and Mayan stonework is so similar. As is the Thai stone work, and that of the sacred city of Karsus in Turkistan, and that of Kensoi in China, where 21 languages were spoken in the whorehouses.
Neurologically, when you get an alpha's blood up, he wont listen, but will stand toe to toe and just hack away, instinctively unwilling to back down. The phalanx was 7 rows deep, betas standing shoulder to shoulder, listening to the horn of the CO to step forward, turn, or- every 20 minutes, step back in the ranks to let the next line take over- WHO HAVE FRESH ARM MUSCLES!. Read Xonophon's Anabasis. The Persian prince Cyrus hired 10,000 Greek hoplites to deal with the mountain tribes we know as the Kurds. But then, after his daddy Xerxes died, took the "Ten Thousand" with to do battle with his brother for the throne at Carnuxa.
The Kazastanis lines were really long, especially when the very first cinema opened, in 17 A.D., well it was actually a puppet show but the scenery was constructed of a very early celluloid material made from flax. The flax was brought down from the mountains on the backs of yaks. Either that or in packs, carried by the arubanis, the slave race of half men and half pig. Some 10,000 were told to "hop to," during each harvest season.
Cyrus thot his candy ass brother would be in his camp, pointed out which way the Greeks should go. the Greeks went thru the persian ranks like a weedeater. But Cyrus himself, because he was alpha. when he saw his brother, waded into the ranks and got killed. Meanwhile, the Greeks have made it to Artaxerxes' camp, are drinking his wine and fucking his women. In, what turns out to be a million man army that had all pledged to Artaxerxes.
The Roman broadsword was the primary empire builder, along with the specific techniques for using it, namely the short thrust, and the regular rotation of front line men with those fresher troops behind. Most foes had no chance against this, they having heavier weapons and an arm-wearying slashing motion, not to mention no provision for relieving the actual combatants until they dropped.
To make a long story short, the ended up cutting their way north thru 1500 miles of the Persian empire to the Black Sea coast. Artaxerxes and his whole fucking empire could not stop them. They sailed home. And just like we see going on in Iraq now, its either draconian force to compel obedience, or you have all these alpha leaders of one gang or the other who innately think they should be running things. Just like GW Bush, they have convictions, and will not, in fact can not, compromise.
I just love the Genius Forum, because it's a place to pontificate on my encyclopedic knowledge of worldly events, and I don't need to actually think about philosophy -- ha -- even though it's a philosophy board, and I don't have to listen to anyone else. It's just like home to me!
They dont ever get it. Alexander read Xonophon, and he knew what a push over the Persian empire would be. Then after the Greeks, it was the Romans, then the Byzantines. So long as they had yeoman farmboys to staff the military with the organization was just unbeatable. The Persians, over the course of 1000 years, never could put together an effective phalanx, cause all they had was lard butt sons of the aristocracy and slaveboys. Same basic problem in Africa.
I tell you some really fucking interesting things happened on many continents over the years. Oats are better than corn. Diversity. Yoemen. Aristocracy. I know lots of big words and really get off throwing them around. You sure this isn't the Genius Sociology and History Board?
The *one* time the Brits had problems, which Diamond writes about in "Guns, Germs, & Steel" was with the Zulu. Who, it turns out, had become *farmers*, and were expanding into the more temperate zone south. Same deal in China, Korea, & Japan, which would've worked better for the peasants if the land had not already been pretty much clearcut. But even so, every couple hundreds or so, there'd be a coup, or some power struggle among the alpha male warrior class- who'd hack away at each other, pretty much leaving the peasants alone because they all regarded the farmers as livestock. Which they expected to enjoy after taking over. But the alpha male attrition rate would get so high that for a time, an interregnum, the farmers would be left to manage their own affairs.
Who could forget the Battle at Rourke's Drift, where 108 well armed British soldiers held off 3,000 spear-chucking Zulus? Livestock and soils, pigs and small grains. My boyhood, ah the hills of home. I wax nostalgic. Bring on Armageddon. I've got a truck buried out by the duck pond. Whores and DNA, small family farming groups of 73-98 individuals. The development of big business. Wooo-ee.
The stupid and violent couldnt manage, and were filtered from the gene pools. The Russians are more stupid and violent because of all the Mongol blood. Not there are not also lots of Viking descendants who try to keep a lid on things. Stalin was so remarkable because everyone knew he was a hick from Georgia. Nobody, however, was surprised at the Mongol level of his brutality.
Yessir, this country is ready for a female President. Just kidding. Crop circles are more than meet the eye. I've got friends who have seen things. Nathan Bedford Forrest. Quantum mechanics. All those statues dug up in the Ming Province, Latitude 54 degrees, Longitude 48 degrees, the Navajo language is very similar to Cantonese Chinese, the Meridians of the Sun, popcorn is a miniature corn but is still not considered a small grain.
