We Were All Liberals
The theory of Biogenetic Law can be summed up with the phrase, “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.” This is the hypothesis that as an animal develops from embryo to mature adult, it goes through series of morphological stages resembling or representing the successive stages in the the animal’s evolution.
This process has some interesting macro-societal implications. 😛
All Babies are Born Liberals. They are helpless, dependent and do not respect the rights of others, demanding to have their needs met at once. Conservatives grow up!
— Unknown, NC State Republican Convention
H/T to Bill Moore for the quote.
Old Ernst Haeckel may have overplayed the Lamarckian components of his Biogenetic Law theory but it’s pretty clear that he got a lot of it right. The simple fact that people become less Liberal and more Conservative as they mature is evidence to this effect.
Tags: Conservatives | Evolution | Haeckel | Humor | Lamarckism | Liberals | Ontogeny | Phylogeny | Politics | Science
June 7th, 2011 at 8:58 am
So, turning it around, can we say that all liberals are babies?
June 7th, 2011 at 9:22 am
Well…That depends on whether ones believes that Liberalism is more of an ontogenetic feature or more of a phylogenetic feature, doesn’t it? 😉
June 8th, 2011 at 9:40 am
You’re quite harsh to make me source a dictionary in order to respond! I’m quite sure is phylogenetic, which to your point in your post, liberals are babies that never evolved.
June 8th, 2011 at 9:43 am
Hehe…Yep, I’m harsh that way. 😉 Drives the Liberals stark raving mad when they can’t successfully claim that an American is uneducated just be cause he or she is un-indoctrinated in their ideology.
June 10th, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Or, liberals are more neotenous than conservatives? Which could be a good trait. Personally I see it as a matter of group selection. A strong tribe has 90 percent conservatives and 10 percent liberals. More than 10 percent (or thereabout) and you will perish through reckless exeperimentation. Less than that and you will perish through lack of adaptation.
June 10th, 2011 at 12:09 pm
They’re certainly more childish – in that they’re more id-driven – than Conservatives, Paradigm, that’s for sure and the basis for the sarcastic humor in the original post. 😉
As for the species survivability – evolutionary history doesn’t back up your claim. The longest lived still existent species have all been ones that didn’t adapt and migrated seldom.
June 11th, 2011 at 11:32 pm
Lamarck? Haeckel?
Why not deal with the theory that actually works in the lab, the theory of evolution?
You might as well compare Republican politics to the aether theory of the stuff between the planets. Turns out aether is just like Republican policy and smarts: Doesn’t matter what you believe, there’s no substance to it.