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Are you dear readers ready to be blown away?
Good!
As my long time readers know, your humble blogger has taken it upon himself to chronicle the Restoration of all things in Christ, which incidentally is the mission statement of the Deus Ex Machina blog.
In order to chronicle the Restoration, what is of critical importance to understand is that our Faith comes from two sources, one of which is that which is known through “natural light of human reason from the things that are made”.
The other source of our Faith is that which is known through “divine revelation.”
The reason that the former source is so important, is that it is this part of our Faith that was suppressed in the years leading up the Second Vatican Council. And therefore, your humble blogger has undertaken it upon himself to return it to its proper place of pride.
Furthermore, it was this source of our Faith that was taught through the Thomistic approach. And as my loyal reader know, the manner in which Thomism was suppressed within the post-conciliar church was succinctly explained by John Lamont in his seminal essay titled Attacks on Thomism.
The consequence of suppressing Thomism, thereby suppressing the “rational” part of our Faith, was that it made the Catholic Faith more “protestant”. In other words, the post-conciliar sect is nothing more than a “denomination” based on sola Scriptura.
And since this sect is sola Sriptura based, and without a fixed interpretive “tradition” for that which they read, they have no way in which to discern whether to interpret the bible as the Lutherans do, or to interpret it as do the Evangelical Pentecostals. This chaotic approach gives them flexibility on the one hand, which is great for ecumenism, but it also has completely detached them from objective reality.
This detachment from reality, which has surpassed even the most daft protestant sects, has in fact metamorphosed, or rather mutated into the realm of “magic thinking”. And an example of this, as I have documented in previous posts, is that in this new post-conciliar “religion”, 2+2 can equal 5 as per our Jesuit friend’s assertion.
It is this aspect of the post-conciliar “mind” that r/K Theory explains quite definitively. But I am getting ahead of myself and digress…
So the manner in which to bring reason, not to mention sanity back into the post-conciliar church’s theological structures, your humble blogger developed a axiomatic principle termed the LEX ARMATICUS.
In its basic form, the LEX ARMATICUS states that:
Those individuals and institutions that comply to the et Invisibilium, will remain a part of the Visibisium Omnium. Those that do not, will be consigned to the trash heap of history.
Where the following definitions hold:
Visibisium Omnium – all the material “things” that we can identify with our senses (touch, sight, feel, smell, taste)
et Invisibilium – all the non-material laws and processes that regulate the visibilium omnium (e.g. the laws of physics – classical mechanics and quantum mechanics, laws of mathematics, rules of logic, etc.)
One of the key applications of the LEX ARMATICUS was used when identifying and analyzing the natural phenomenon known as the State of Necessity (SofN). We used this versatile mechanism to identify the SofN in no less than THREE different sub-sets of the et Invisibilium, namely theology, law and political science. This last sighting of the SofN was during a speech that Archbishop Georg Gänswein gave on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI. The reference to SofN in this speech allowed us, using our proprietary methodology, to assert the following: Ockham’s Razor Finds: Benedict Still Pope, Francis Is False Pope, Universal Church in State of Necessity since 24 April, 2005.
Today, we roll out the LEX ARMATICUS in order to help us put another piece of research from the area of behavioral science, but also partly from the political science field, into its proper CONTEXT. This research theory that appears to be very solid is what is known as the r/K Selection Theory in Evolutionary Ecology.
Without going into to many specifics, what the r/K Theory posits is that human behavior, including political inclinations in individuals, are determined to a high degree by physiological factors.
To be more precise, what appears to be the case is that there is a causal relationship between the size (proper development) of one’s Amygdala, a part of the human brain that develops due to a person’s experiencing of adverse outcomes.
Aside, the Amygdala are almond-shaped masses of gray matter that are part of the limbic system and are located in the temporal lobes of the cerebral hemispheres in the brain.
So this is the introduction. Below is the source article from the Anonymous Conservative blog and the original post can be found here. I have abridged it to keep it from being too long.
I have also taken it upon myself to watch over 4 hours of video presentations on just this subject, produced by Stefan Molyneux. I have linked to these videos in this post. At the top is a video of the program with Bill Whittle. Below is the three video series that provide an in-depth explanation of the science behind the r/K Theory.
And finally, I highly recommend that you dear reader read the below and watch the videos. When watching the video’s, please keep in mind the behavior of a certain Roman cleric who has been acting very strangely since… well, since he arrived in Rome as far as we have been able to observe.
Once you get to the 4th video, you will have a very comprehensive understanding for why he does what he does.
And when the next conclave rolls around, it would be a wise idea for the College of Cardinals to have MRI’s performed on all the brains of the papabile in order to determine whether those candidates have properly developed Amygdalas.
Note bene: It might also be a good idea to pass it around to any family members who have children at home, especially young children.
*******
Think You Know Everything About Conservatism, Liberalism, and Politics?
Get Ready to be Blown Away.
(…)
This is the new idea sweeping behind the scenes in Political Science, and being discussed in hushed tones by frightened professors throughout Leftist academia. It asserts that Liberalism is little more than a programmed suite of rabbit-like behavioral urges, designed to exploit resource excess within our populations. It is based upon the foundational concept in the study of reproductive strategies, called r/K Selection Theory in Evolutionary Ecology, and no political junkie who reads it can help but be awed.
In r/K Selection Theory in Evolutionary Ecology, if you provide a population with free resources, those who will come to dominate the population will exhibit five basic traits, called an r-selected Reproductive Strategy. These traits are all designed to best exploit the free resource availability. In nature, the r-selected strategy is best seen in the rabbit, which lives in fields of grass it will never fully consume. The five traits are, competition and risk avoidance, promiscuity, low-investment single parenting, earlier age of sexualization of young, and no loyalty to in-group. These traits are ultimately designed to selfishly maximize the numbers of offspring produced. Each of these offspring, though of lesser fitness, will be able to survive and reproduce freely themselves, due to the free resource availability. In r-selection nobody ends up dead, and killing or being killed is not a concern.
In r/K Theory, there is also a strategy exactly opposite to the rabbit’s, which emerges under conditions of resource scarcity. It is called the K-selected Reproductive Strategy. There, where resources are scarce, competition for resources is everywhere, and some individuals will die due to failure in competition, and the resultant resource denial that this produces. This produces the K-strategy, which is best seen in the wolf. This strategy also has five psychological traits – competitiveness/aggressiveness/protectiveness, mate monopolization/monogamy, high-investment two-parent child-rearing, later age of sexualization of young, and high loyalty to in-group. This psychology is designed to form highly fit and competitive groups that succeed in group competition, all while capturing and monopolizing the fittest mate possible, as a means of making their offspring genetically fitter than those of competitors. Here, the goal is not to simply consume as much as possible yourself and produce as many baby-making machines as you can, with little regard to their fitness. Here, the goal is to help your group succeed in its competition for the scarce resources, and then produce offspring of as high a fitness as possible, so they may carry your genes forward by succeeding in competition themselves. It is obvious why every r-strategy ideal would act as a repellent to a K-strategist, since each ideal would guarantee failure in the K-selected environment.
The premise of this highly substantiated scientific work is that all of politics is really a battle between the K-strategist wolves within our society, designed to battle in a world of scarce resources and fierce competition, and the r-strategist rabbits, designed to freely graze the bounty of a sudden resource glut and rapidly explode in numbers to exploit such a glut.
The implications of such a work on our perceptions of each ideology’s morals and propriety are mind boggling. Get the book for free, and see for yourself!
r/K Selection Theory
A concept in biology which postulates that nature will tend to produce two different psychologies, each adapted to a specific environment. It states that animals which are competitive and protective of family, sexually selective and monogamous, imbued with regard for two parent family life, desirous that offspring wait until mature to mate, and loyal to in-group are designed to produce highly fit and competitive offspring, designed to compete in an environment of resource scarcity.
Animals that exhibit a cowardly nature, promiscuous mating strategy, single parenting style, early sexualization of young, and no loyalty to in-group are designed to exploit a resource glut by producing as many offspring as possible, as fast as possible, without regard to offspring quality.
The K-selected Wolf
Wolves are a quintessential K-strategist species. Wolves are competitive and protective, because they must fight for food to survive. They carefully select the fittest mate, and monopolize that fit mate, so that their offspring will be as genetically fit as possible, relative to peers. They embrace two-parent family values, as offspring are reared carefully in a loving and supportive pack/family environment, so they will have the best chance of succeeding themselves in their own competitions. They do not allow offspring to mate until mature and proven in competition, so any immaturity will not lead to their offspring securing sub-par monogamous mates. Finally, they develop a strong pack-loyalty to maximize the chances of their pack’s competitive success, and by extension, their own. Males evolve to be courageous and strong as they set out to provision the family and absorb any risk, while females carefully nurture offspring back at the den.
The r-selected Rabbit
Rabbits are quintessential r-strategists. Rabbits live in fields of grass they never fully exhaust. Their goal is to produce as many offspring as quickly as possible. They flee from danger, because to fight for food that they can get elsewhere is an unnecessary risk. They mate promiscuously with any mate, because their goal is solely to reproduce, absent concerns for genetic quality – when resources are everywhere, even the most defective offspring can find food, mate, and pass genes forward. While males are off mating as often as possible, females raise offspring alone, and quickly send them on their way to whelp a new litter. Offspring begin having sex early, to maximize numbers of their own offspring. Loyalty to in-group is unknown to the rabbit, because there is no competition for resources, since resources are everywhere. Among r-strategists, males will tend to exhibit smaller, more feminine, less robust physical qualities, to better facilitate fleeing and showy displays of flash and beauty, to facilitate mate attraction, and mating. r-strategist females, by contrast will tend to grow big, assertive, and ill-tempered, to better occupy a more masculine family role, provisioning and protecting the offspring they raise alone.
Liberalism isn’t intellectual. It is merely the rabbit’s r-selected Reproductive Strategy, intellectualized in humans who exhibit it instinctually. Its only purpose is to exploit a resource excess in our society. This information kills Liberals, if you point it out to them, because it strips Liberalism of any intellectual justification, leaving it as merely a conglomeration of r-selected urges that K-selected humans oppose instinctually. This work is what we were waiting for, and it will alter our political debates forever.
(…)
Video #1
Video #2
Video #3
The Deus Ex Machina Blog 
Further reading on r/K. New book available. http://www.anonymousconservative.com/index.html
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I actually republished AC’s promo page in the post.
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S.A. In trying to understand the underlying mechanisms of r/K could it be said that the patterns of behavior associated with r/K be likened to addictions especially in the case of r behavior? If so, some sort of 12 step program might be appropriate as a corrective.
Another point it would seem that wealth is one of the primary conditions that bring about r behavior.
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Wealth is definitely an issue. It is the unlimited resources that create the epigenetic environment where the r genes are turned on.
I think this is so in line with what happened to the Church in the Western countries after the Council. In Eastern communist ruled countries, the scarcity of resources created the K environment and we see today that these countries have higher church attendances and more conservative (rational) electorates.
It is such an elegant, not to mention clinical explanation. 🙂
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Almost there! One more step to go.
Where you aware of these theories prior to my pointing them out to you?
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When I found out about r/K selection theory and intuited genetic self interest my social anxiety levels dropped significantly. specifically with regards to what is happening in the great society known as the Catholic Church, because I now understand why people act the way they do.
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Yes.
The r/K Theory does an exceptional job of explaining why a doctrinally determined K environment just literally disintegrated when it population found out that they were living in times of infinite resources.
And now that the resources have been depleted, some of that population is reverting back to the K state.
Explains the explosion of the Latin Mass and proper Catholicism among the young perfectly.
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Actually, I knew of John B. Calhoun from my undergrad days. But since my background is econ, I did not know that much. And I definitely didn’t know about the downstream work that has been done since. I would suspect that r/K Theory is a direct result.
Now, as Stefan Molyneux, I found out about him from a Fr. Z blog. It was a video he did with Dr. Duke Pesta and it got me looking for his work. Which b/t/w was easy to find on youtube, since he produces so much.
And the last bit was your suggestion that I view the Jordan Peterson video in which he laid out the Jungian “trade-off” between Justice with Mercy. It was through that video that “it clicked”.
What that video did, for me anyways is that it demonstrated the continuity of Thomistic methodology with recent work being done in the behavioral sciences. Objectively correct work.
To be perfectly honest, since grad school and even before, I considered the behavioral sciences as sophistry. I liked economics since it replicated a lot of what the other did, but since it has a quantitative element, it came up with better results. Actually, it came up with different results, which is why I thought the rest of it was sh*t.
But from the economics side, I always considered it a philosophical discipline. My alma mater was big into econ and it was taught at a much more advanced level. Using numbers 🙂
But now, thanks to you in large part, a new world has opened up to me. The research of someone like Peterson is phenomenal. So not I see that these advances in the other behavioral sciences are legitimate and can be incorporated into a comprehensive science-philosophy-theology framework.
To that would be how I got here.
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I have a concern but comments back to Mr. Dowd do help to suppress it a bit. My concern is that Stefan is leaving out Original Sin and sin in general and almost gives people an “out” since this is all genetic. I know you mentioned Stefan is Catholic so I will assume he is purposely leaving out religion to gain a wider audience. With that said, I have only watched the first of the three videos but will watch the others as time permits. I am very interested in this topic and the r/K genetic theory seems to explain a lot.
What are your thoughts on the possibility of investing too much into this theory, to the point of pushing the ability for a person to sin out of the question? Stefan tends to hold too closely to the evolutionary theory and that is making me proceed with caution.
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Hi Michael,
If I gave you the impression that Stefan is Catholic, this is not correct. I apologize since it would be my bad.
I sometimes write that people are catholic since their approach to philosophy/metaphysics is aligned with the first source of our Faith, i.e. that which comes from reason.
As to Stefan’s religiosity, he claims that he is an “athiest” but this is misleading. He should say that he is an agnostic. But what I suspect is that he has supernatural faith, but I don’t think he wants to admit it.
He is unfortunate in that he was born and raised in the Church of England. He than fell out and wend down the secular philosophy route.
Anyways, one again, sorry if I was the source of any confusion.
S.A.
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Thank you for clarifying that. I now feel better about where he is coming from and how I need to proceed with the remaining lectures.
Your commentary on these videos from Stefan and how or where they can jive with our Catholic faith and Scholastic Philosophy would be greatly appreciated, maybe in a future post if time permits.
God bless,
michael
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I am planning on doing just this. But time is limited and this is not my main area of expertise.
But on a general note, I feel as we in the West are on the threshold of a new Thomist revival. On the one hand, our knowledge (science) has advanced while our metaphysical knowledge and development has been retarded. And it appears that now we see this enormous body of scientific knowledge looking for meaning.
This meaning is brought about by a threat. Existential in this case. And people are wondering about how this happened.
And science can’t explain that.
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As to the second part of your comment, I would say that Stefan is definately NOT in the determinist camp. He is a big promotor of free will.
As to the evolution theory, all secularists make this claim. Even though they will make the case that the probability that humans “evolved” to the point that we did is very small, they are not willing to take the next step and assign that work to the Creator.
Might be a business decision, if you ask me.
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Thanks S.A. Most interesting theory. I listened to Part #1 and am especially looking forward to Parts #2 and #3. One of the questions emerging from Part #1 is that most Liberals I know tend to have few children, if any, are well off financially, very smart, highly educated, often homosexual, a tendency to be theoretical, more interested in politics. On the other hand conservatives have many of the same characteristics but are less verbal, more blue collar, less homosexual, less interested in politics.
The r/K distinction would appear most obvious in the black vs. white population. But there are so reasons for what happened to the blacks that the r/K theory seems very limited as an explanatory tool.
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Hi:
Two things. First, Stefan in one of his videos (maybe in the Whittle video) explains the reason for the r gene types and low births is a result of abortion and birth control.
There is also the epigenetic factors whereby the low dopamine production (abhorrence of competition) of the r gene pools are turning off the K genes, creating more intensive r types.
As for the black/white divergence, I think it explains the black problems perfectly. When you get to the 3rd video, you will see 🙂
And finally, this theory, like all theories is general. They describe large populations. When looking at individuals, we might not see the characteristic overtly. But if we look at the entire population, their distribution would confirm.
S.A.
PS The key to understanding is the 2nd video. In my opinion it was the best one since it identifies the causes. The clinical causes! If you understand this, you see that this theory is not just an abstract construct. THat is it’s power and the source of the threat that the r gene pools instinctively fear.
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Thanks S.A. Do you think the r/k phenomenon can be considered part of natural law? Or is more evolutionary? As we seek an all purpose explanation for why things are the way they are I think you are really on to something that Catholicism, ala’ St. Thomas, is the best explanation. How r/K fits into St Thomas thinking would be interesting to consider.
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It appears that our Creator provided all His creatures with a reproduction strategy, since He sent them forth and told them to be fruitful and multiply.
Since humans were created in His image, we genetically possess both sets of strategy genes. These different strategies genes appear to be subjected to free will.
It would appear that these strategies are a part of the creation (creatures – genetic) itself and not exist in and of themselves.
What is interesting is that they seem to confirm that humans have free will and are free to chose.
It would also confirm that there are good choices – more dopamine which develops testosterone which then produces oxytocin. The better oxytocin processing, the more stable the family unit and society which is build on a stable family unit. And there are not good choices – to much r strategy, society falls apart, i.e. trashheap of history.
Furthermore, it would appear that those creature who make good choices are rewarded (become the predator) and those who make bad choices are punished (become the prey). Think Mohammedan (K strategy) invasion of Europe (r strategy).
Next, it would appear that what the r/K Theory is, is a clinical confirmation of Shcolasticism in general and Thomism particular. It is as if the theology of St. Thomas – (competitiveness/aggressiveness/protectiveness, mate monopolization/monogamy, high-investment two-parent child-rearing, later age of sexualization of young, and high loyalty to in-group) is a natural form of Thomism. And it appears that this natural form of Thomism is confirmed by the biological construction of the human.
As far as the evolutionary aspect, I think this far from certain. It would appear that His creatures have this reproductive strategy (ies) already built into the dna.
Ah r/K Theory fitting into a Thomistic framework, looks like a lay up!
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Thanks S.A. The concept that springs to mind from what you said about how r/K is affected by free will, is psycho/physical parallelism, i.e, how we think can change how our body functions. Seems to me Aristotle had something to say about this. The take-away is the need to follow Catholic philosophy and morality in order for humanity success/survival. The way we are headed very quickly now is towards extinction.
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