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Christopher Ryan

Christopher Ryan Books

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“The depiction of human nature embedded in the NPP isn't science; it's a marketing campaign for the status quo. The politics of perpetual fear is corrosive to our well-being and our innate capacities for cooperation, community, and kindness. Fear of terrorists, fear of running out of money, fear of getting old, fear of strangers, fear of death, fear of sharks, fear of being hit by lightning, fear of fear itself. It keeps us quiet and complacent in our supposedly protective cages.”

Human NatureCivilizationSocial SciencesHunter GathererHobbesianNarrative Of Perpetual Progress
Book:Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress
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“Marriage," "mating," and "love" are socially constructed phenomena that have little or no transferable meaning outside any given culture. The examples we've noted of rampant ritualized group sex, mate-swapping, unrestrained casual affairs, and socially sanctioned sequential sex were all reported in cultures that anthropologists insist are monogamous simply because they've determined that something they call "marriage" takes place there. No wonder so many insist that marriage, monogamy, and the nuclear family are human universals. With such all-encompassing interpretations of the concepts, even the prairie vole, who "sleeps with anyone," would qualify.”

SexAnthropology
Book:Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
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“Could it be that the atomic isolation of the husband and wife nucleus with an orbiting child or two is in fact a culturally imposed aberration for our species? As ill-suited to our evolved tendencies as corsets, chastity belts, and suits of armor? ...a distorted and distorting family structure inappropriate for our species?”

ChildrenTwoFactsWifeHusbandStructureSpeciesIllTendenciesSuitsIsolationBeltsArmorHusband And WifeChastityInappropriateNucleusAberrationCorsetsSuits Of Armor
Author:Christopher Ryan
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“Our sense of the full range of human nature, like our diet, has been steadily reduced. No matter how nourishing it might be, anything wild gets pulled - though as we'll see, some of the weeds growing in us have roots reaching deep into our shared past. Pull them if you want, but they'll just keep coming back again and again.”

IfsWantHumansHas BeensMatterMightPastGrowingHuman NatureRootsRangeDietsReachingWeedAgain And AgainComing BackBack Again
Author:Christopher Ryan
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“Why would so many risk their reputations, families, careers—even presidential legacies—for something that runs against human nature? Were monogamy an ancient, evolved trait characteristic of our species, as the standard narrative insists, these ubiquitous transgressions would be infrequent and such horrible enforcement unnecessary. No creature needs to be threatened with death to act in accord with its own nature.”

NeedsHumansWould BeRunningCareersRiskHuman NatureCreaturesStandardsSpeciesAncientHorribleReputationLegacyNarrativePresidentialCharacteristicsTraitsUnnecessaryThreatenedEnforcementAccordTransgressionMonogamy
Author:Christopher Ryan
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“You can slow time down by traveling. That month from Shringar to the Taj Mahal is like a year in my life currently. Really, time is a measure of change, in a vacuum time doesn't exist because nothing's changing. If you can pack your life full of interesting changes you stretch it out. So if you want to live longer, have a really interesting life.”

IfsWantYearsInterestingMonthsPacksVacuumsReally InterestingInteresting LifeTaj MahalMahal
Author:Christopher Ryan
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“Poverty is not a certain small amount of goods, nor is it just a relation between means and ends; above all it is a relation between people. Poverty is a social status. As such it is the invention of civilization. Socrates made the same point 2,400 years ago: "He is richest who is content with least, for contentment is the wealth of nature.”

PeopleYearsMeanMadeEndsCertainSocialWealthPovertyAmountCivilizationYears AgoRelationInventionContentmentGoodsSmall AmountsSocial Status
Author:Christopher Ryan
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