in praise of gold

[Harmon Seaver]

Petro wrote:

>
>         It might be more than just wealth these women are after. A man with
> fat herds, or a fat wallet can better provide for children than a man
> with a single battered old goat, or an empty wallet. And over emphasized
> secondary sexual characteristics might, at the subconscious level be
> linked with better child-producing abilities.

      On a long road trip one night, I heard an extremely interesting long
discussion amongst a group of psychiatrists, sociologists, and other
scientists,  regarding a study which showed, firstly, that large numbers of
attractive young women married unattractive, frequently older, boring, but
financially well-off men.
      No surprise, that, eh? But then, the study showed, that a large
percentage of these same women also tended to have adulterous relationships
with what was termed "dangerous" men -- losers, outlaws, reckless adventurers,
etc.
     Another surprise was that this was a cross-cultural phenomenon, and the
gist of the discussion was that this wasn't merely thrill seeking or whatever
on the part of the women, but was actually subconscious darwinism in action,
i.e., the woman formed the permanent alliance with the man who could best
support her offspring, then got herself impregnated by the males with the
strongest, sexiest, genetic makeup -- thereby insuring that not only would her
children survive, but they, like their true father (and also like the mother)
would be very attractive and likely to mate.
      An extremely interesting idea. Some might find the articles in the most
recent Wired about the high percentages of autism among Silicon Valley
children to be interesting --




--
Harmon Seaver
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com