There are two interesting developments on the disease front, it seems — and my love affair with Seed continues.
First is the news that right-wing conservatism might actually be due to a disease*.
According to USGS researcher Kevin Lafferty, personality traits such as
[P]reference for strict laws, an expression of uncertainty avoidance, and [a society's] valuation of ‘masculine’ priorities such as competitiveness and financial success over ‘feminine’ values like relationship-building
may be rooted in infection by the microorganism Toxoplasma gondii. Earlier research indicated that
Infected men tended to have lower levels of intelligence, superego strength and novelty-seeking, while infected women exhibited higher levels of intelligence, superego strength and warmth.
This leads me to conclude that the infection isn’t sexually transmitted, since obviously any woman who would hook up with a man exhibiting symptoms is not likely to be possessed of ego certainty or intelligence.
Wiki on toxoplasmosis here; CDC on it here.
The second vector, so to speak, is in this article, which seems to suggest monogamy is actually bad for us biologically. Apparently a monogamous couple serves as a Petri dish of sorts, allowing all sorts of new STD strains to develop.
So I guess marriage ain’t so sacred after all, at least not in the eyes of infectious organisms.
Add these two together and you get a pincer attack on right-wing loonies: The reason they behave as they do, and a good reason to not behave as they do in one important area.
Q, as they say, ED.
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* I KNEW IT!
