http://www.pbs.org/programs/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Maybe some of you have read into this stuff already. I wish I took a class from that Sapolsky prof. - his beard is badass (and he's super smart of course). Recently science has found a simple way to measure how much your body is aging - the length of your telomeres (structures connected to your chromosomes). The more times your cells divide, the shorter the telomeres get, and the closer your cells are to "death" (cells can only divide a finite # of times). Not sure how that relates to physical death, but older cells generally don't perform as well. As you would expect, stress increases the rate of telomere shortening. The doc is from NatGeo, but I think they were a bit fast and loose with their conclusions based on what limited data they provided. However, they did a study of Marin County moms who take care of disabled kids vs. moms with non-disabled kids. The former group had shorter telomeres (on average 6 years older than their calendar age) and complained about more health issues. We know that conception is less likely for couples under stress, but apparently stress can also affect fetal development. This part was a little sketchy, but they did a survey of Dutch children born during a terrible famine under Nazi occupation. Their moms were likely under a lot of stress. The kids are now elderly, and they reported higher incidence of chronic illness and emotional problems. I am not sure if that difference is statistically significant vs. peers, but I do believe that an expecting mom under stress probably isn't a good thing.
Also related to stress and health outcomes is your work environment. The UK performed a study on public workers and found that the mortality rates of low-level workers were 3X higher than upper managers (mostly driven by cardio health). Of course job level may correlate with amount of vacation time/financial security, and a multitude of factors are likely at play (socioeconomic background, education, diet, etc.), but not sure if they controlled for those. The theory is that the stress imposed by lack of empowerment & control, and managerial pressure have negative impacts on your biology. So yes, your boss may in fact be killing you. :)
The workplace and social hierarchy stuff ties into Sapolsky's research on baboon colonies. They are evolutionarily fit creatures (despite having bright red faces and butts), so they have about 9 hours of free time per day when they're not hunting and sleeping. They use that time to either torment each other or build social bonds. The "alpha asshole" baboons were dominant and often harassed the others to maintain their social positions. The beta baboons were marginalized. Just like middle school or the office. The alphas get first dibs on food of course, but for one colony it was bad because they happened to dine on diseased meat in the garbage of a human settlement. So all the alphas died. The betas then "took over". Did they become jerk alphas in their place? Nope, they maintained their submissive, "nice" ways. The colony on average spent less time fighting and more time grooming (a primate form of relaxation and bonding). They lived longer and looked healthier. And they propagated these traits to the next generation, so the colony continues to be more Utopian than others. If they can do it, what is our excuse? Maybe we need to get rid of all the assholes, for everyone's health? :)
Of course a lot of stress is self-imposed. So I think we have to say enough is enough and learn to let go. I definitely need to. It's not worth killing yourself over.
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conclusion: we should take out all of the assholes? do you think this cop in LA may be doing what is best for society? maybe alot of these massacre killers are highly evolved and trying to move us to the next level by getting rid of what they perceive as the alphas? hey, someone had to say it.
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That is basically the plot of this Angelina Jolie movie from a while back: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
These elite hitmen use a magic device to get the names of bad people that they need to whack in order for the world to keep going. But things turn south when the device gives them their own names. DUN DUN DUN!! (I could narrate trailers if I had a deeper voice).
Well, the mass killers in CO and CT targeted innocents, not "assholes". I am not sure what is going on with the LA case, but I am sure that cop had some legit injustices inflicted upon him. Civilized people are just not permitted to use violence for revenge, even if we're persecuted by assholes. Religions say that we'll be rewarded in the afterlife for our tolerance. I sure as heck hope so. Bullies are the worst scum of the earth, but we can't beat them with violence or we may become then. Some would say we have to make exceptions for people like Hitler, but it's a slippery slope (i.e. did we have to firebomb Dresden to stop Hitler, who was clearly going to lose by late 1943?).
LOL: "they also shot another guy they thought was dorner....he looked just like him, but he was about 100lbs. less than dorner and he was white." Yeah it gets bad when a guy targets cop families. They all get itchy trigger fingers and circle the wagons. It's interesting that they are making absolutely ZERO effort to resolve this peacefully. Some other mass killers surrendered when the cops came. Something can be worked out of they give it a serious effort. But they are out for blood now, even if it's unconstitutional. Hell that whole Constitution thing didn't stop Obama and his drones. And he was the "nice" choice for president.
Instead of resorting to violence to enforce justice, our societies need to learn to change priorities and incentives. Now we reward asshole behavior and basically punish nice behavior. We have to flip that on its head (some "primitive" societies already do - but we look down on them), but good luck when it's the assholes making the rules and the $. It's the human effing condition. But like Sapolsky said - ditch this BS and live in rural Africa. He felt truly happier and healthier when he was there and can't wait to go back. The French expats I met in Polynesia look happy and healthy too. They married nice island girls and take tourists on snorkel trips every day. Now who is the alpha dog?
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show me one supposed cop killer that is taken alive. it ain't gonna happen. also, there is no real evidence tying him to the killings of that cop's family members. we'll never know the truth b/c this guy is dead. they will never let him say another word and he sure as shit will not see the inside of a courthouse.
some north american native tribe used to react to antisocial behavior by
bringing everyone closer to the person. it was the tribe's
responsibility collectively for the tribe's behavior. just seems the
zero tolerance/punitive response isn't working real well....
and, i've seen those ex-pats. certainly looks like a nice life....stress is greatly reduced.-----------
Yeah I agree with that, it's Wild West "justice" for the LAPD and other such orgs when they feel the blue line has been crossed.
That is a good point about the Native American collective remedy to antisocial behavior. In the US, we celebrate some sociopaths (athletes, Hollywood, financiers, etc.), and ostracize others (to institutions, prisons, the streets, etc.). It's a billion-dollar industry to segregate people in America. Maybe it has to do with our ultra-individualistic mentality and culture vs. more "social" societies. Hehe I guess that makes us an antisocial society. Though a prof recently told me that the US is not the most individualistic culture... that is actually Israel. Not sure how it was measured, but in that study it was more about defiance of authority rather than collective problem solving. But clearly the East Asian, Latino, and African cultures are much more collectivist than ours.
PS - speaking of "Latino", with the immigration debate going on, I am just so tired of the word "Hispanic". That is the stupidest name ever - totally artificial and irrelevant to everyone but Columbus. I was told that the Reagan admin. popularized it, but not sure if that is true. To me it's worse than "Oriental", which personally I don't find offensive at all. It sounds exotic. :)
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