Every baboon troop is led by an alpha who holds power until ousted by a challenger. Brute force makes you alpha among small-brained mammals like bovines, but in the primate world, power is won by trading favors. Baboons have curiously familiar ways of winning support. They share meat after a hunt. They groom the fur of influential troop-mates. They fight lions while their troop-mates climb up trees and watch. Patronage works. A baboon becomes alpha when his alliance is capable of overpowering th...

Debates are structured to convey fairness, but the moderators are always Democrats. If the moderators were Republican, people would notice. Why are Democrat journalists presumed “neutral,” while Republican journalists are suspect of bias? Many Americans do not perceive liberal views as a bias, but they perceive conservative views as a bias. We humans are not aware of our own biases. Electricity flows through your brain the way water flows in a storm, finding the paths of least resistance. You m...

I’m usually very choosy about my information sources, but a walk through an airport yesterday assaulted me with headlines on newsstands and monitors. One caption stopped me in my tracks : "Can government create jobs?" I've waited decades for that question. When I studied Economics in college, it was taken for granted that government can and should create jobs. Since then, candidates and media have continued presupposing this role for government. At long last, this election cycle may stimulate d...

Greed is a big theme in this election. It’s easy to blame this on politicians, but they are playing to the prevailing mindset of voters. Psychologists did much to create that entitlement mindset. Modern psychology spins rationalizations that support the politics of greed, helping people feel good about their own greed by pointing to the greed of others. The most egregious example is what psychologists call the “ultimatum game.” Researchers give a laboratory subject a cash gift of ten dollars, a...

Good news is everywhere, but it's widely  ignored. There's good news about energy supplies (increasing), economic innovation (thriving), and Third World democracy (all-time high). The facts about positive developments don't get a lot of attention, but they're easily available to anyone who wants them. EnergyUS natural gas supplies are increasing, and solar photovoltaic panels have fallen in price dramatically with production in China. The down side of these developments is lamented so loudly th...

Life throws me chances to practice being independent every day. Yesterday, I landed in the middle of a political conversation when I sat down to get my hair cut. The customer in the next chair was condemning big companies for causing obesity. Her haircutter agreed that businesses have malicious ways of getting us to overeat. The young lady with her hands in my hair chimed in exuberantly. I don’t share their view, and I usually run the other way when people start blaming their problems on corpor...

Brain chemicals cause herd behavior in politics. When a mammal runs with the herd, its brain releases a chemical called oxytocin. That produces a pleasant feeling, which motivates the mammal to stick with the herd. Separating from the herd triggers a mammal’s cortisol, the brain chemical that signals imminent survival threat. Sticking with a herd or pack or troop promotes survival in the state of nature, and natural selection produced a brain that makes you feel good when you do things that prom...