Life History Evolution and Sociology: The Biological Backstory of Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960-2010

79 Pages·2016·4.74 MB·English

by  Steven C. Hertler (auth.)

Life History Evolution
and Sociology
StevenC.Hertler
Life History
Evolution
and Sociology
The Biological Backstory of Coming Apart:
–
The State of White America 1960 2010
StevenC.Hertler
Psychology
CollegeofNewRochelle
NewRochelle,NewYork,USA
ISBN978-3-319-48783-0 ISBN978-3-319-48784-7(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-48784-7
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016957386
©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2016
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Thisbook isdedicated jointlyto CharlesMurray andAurelio J.
Figueredoet al.,who respectivelyproduced thesociological and
biological datasetsherein joined.
P
REFACE
Charles Murray’s Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960–2010
documents 50 years of changed college admissions, government incen-
tives,matingandmigrationpatternsthathavewroughtnationaldivisions
across indexes of marriage, industriousness, honesty, and religiosity. The
present paper supplies the evolutionary and genetic framework that
Murray, toward the end of his book, predicts will one day explain the
revolution in American society he documents. This framework is life
historyevolution,asubdisciplinewithinevolutionarybiologysinglycapable
ofexplainingwhyviolentcrime,propertycrime,lowmarriagerates,father
absence, early birth, low educational achievement, low income, poverty,
lackofreligiosity,andreducedachievementstrivingwillreliablyco-occur
as part of a complex. This complex augments facultatively, developmen-
tally, and evolutionarily in response to unpredictable and uncontrollable
sources of mortality. The uncertain tenure of life wrought by unpredict-
able and uncontrollable mortality selects for a present-oriented use of
bioenergetics resources recognizable as the social ills of Fishtown,
Murray’s archetypal working-class community. In turn, the 30 years of
lifehistoryliteraturehereinreviewedconfirmsthebiologicallogicofelite
intermarriageandsequestration.Thesourceoflifehistoryvariation,policy
implications,and demographyisdiscussed.
vii
C
ONTENTS
1 AFault Line FiftyYears inthe Making 1
Notes 4
2 TheBiology of Bifurcation 5
Notes 7
3 LifeHistory Evolution:An ExplanatoryFramework 9
Notes 11
4 Aggregatingthe Biological,Psychological,
andSociological 13
4.1 Community and Religiosity 15
4.2 Industry andHonesty 18
4.3 Marriage and ParentalInvestment 21
4.4 Life History asaCorrelated Complex 23
Notes 24
5 Questionsof Etiology,Change, Policy,Mating,
andMigration 27
5.1 What DrivesLife HistoryVariation? 27
5.2 How DoLife HistoriesChange inPersonsand Populations? 31
5.3 How Mighta LifeHistory Framework BroadlyInform
Policy? 34
5.4 What Isthe Rationalefor Homogamous Mating? 37
ix
x CONTENTS
5.5 WhatAretheImplicationsofEliteMigrationandIsolation? 39
Notes 41
6 TheBiologyofSociology:PittingIdeologyAgainstElegance 47
Notes 51
References 53
Index 71
CHAPTER1
A Fault Line Fifty Years in the Making
Abstract The American sociologist Charles Murray recently published
ComingApart:TheStateofWhiteAmerica1960–2010,abookthatdocu-
ments50yearsofchangedcollegeadmissionstandards,governmentincen-
tives,matingpractices,andmigrationpatternsthathavewroughtnational
divisions across indexes of marriage, industriousness, honesty, and religi-
osity. Herein a relevant summary of Coming Apart is supplied, providing
readerswithacommonandcurrentunderstandingofthebook’spertinent
content.Aswillbeseen,ComingApart’sthesisisthatAmericaiscleaving
into separate populations across levels of marriage, industriousness, hon-
esty,andothervirtuesputativelyprerequisiteforafunctionalrepublic.
Keywords Charles Murray (cid:1) Coming Apart (cid:1) evolutionary psychology (cid:1)
cognitiveelite
Coming Apart: The State of White America 1960–2010, written by Charles
Murray and published in 2012 by the Random House subsidiary Crown
Forum,documentsthedivisivestratificationofAmericancultureintolower
and upper classes, respectively, represented by Fishtown and Belmont.
EnvelopingasmallportionofInterstate95asittracesthePennsylvaniaside
oftheDelawareRiver,theportsideneighborhoodofPhiladelphiaknownas
FishtownismostextensivelydescribedbyMurrayonpage215.Amongother
sources cited by Murray are the studies of local historian Kenneth Milano
(2008, 2010) who traces Fishtown’s eponymous origins to an apocryphal
commentbyCharlesDickens,andamoreestablishedpracticeofshadfishing
©TheAuthor(s)2016 1
S.C.Hertler,LifeHistoryEvolutionandSociology,
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-48784-7_1
2 LIFEHISTORYEVOLUTIONANDSOCIOLOGY
byearlyinhabitantsoftheregion.1Whateveritshistory,thispredominately
working-class Irish Catholic section of Philadelphia now has low home
values, rents that often do not exceed 800 dollars monthly, a median
household income below 40,000 dollars annually, and a predominance of
persons terminating their education before, or just after, finishing high
school.2 Belmont, in contrast, is a wealthy suburb of Boston bordered
byCambridge,Watertown,Lexington,andArlington.Originallyunderthe
aegis of some of the aforementioned surrounding towns, Belmont transi-
tionedfromregiontoincorporatedtowninthelatterhalfofthenineteenth
century with the financial assistance of John Perkins Cushing, one of its
mostwealthycitizens.Bytheturnofthecentury,farmersandfarmsdecline,
being replaced by artists and authors, physicians, and scientists (Belmont
Massachusetts2016).Murray(2012)findsthetownmuchthesame.These
sameeliteprofessionalsarejoinedbyuniversityprofessors,lawyers,engineers,
and a variety of business professionals, making the Baccalaureate common-
placeandthemedianhouseholdincomewellmorethansixfigures.Thisisa
combinationthenofeducationandwealth.Ratherthanconstitutingaliteral
comparative study of these two towns, Coming Apart treats Fishtown and
BelmontasexemplarsofadividedAmerica.
During the early 1960s, Fishtown and Belmont began diverging, with
unprecedented bifurcation and isolation resulting by 2010. Previously,
MurrayarguesthattheUnitedStateswassubjecttoasetoffoundingvalues,
heldbytheelite,andsharedbythemasses.Astheprologuestresses,choice
andmobilityremainedlimitedinthe1960s,suchthatthoseontheupperand
lowerendsoftheeconomicladderdidnotdifferentiatethemselvestoexcess,
orseparatethemselvesinresidence.Americanssharedtheirculture,listening
tomoreorlessthesamemusic,attendingsimilarchurches,mingling,mating,
andmarryingoneanother.TheelitedrovecarsmostlyofAmericanmanufac-
tureandlivedinhousesnotgrosslymoreexpansiveorexpensivethanthatof
yourtraditionalworkingclassfamilydwelling.Importantly,Murraydoesnot
contend that American society had been classless, he acknowledges that the
richandthepoorsometimeslivedandworshippedindifferentpartsoftown
andobserveddifferentcustomsandpractices.Thedifferencebetweenpastand
presentisoneofdegree.Atpresent,however,thedegreeofseparation,bothin
termsofproximityandacross“corebehaviorsandvalues,”createsanunpar-
alleled alienation fatal to cross-class perspective taking, founding American
principles, and national unity (Murray 2015). Fishtown and Belmont have
diverged like the sciences and humanities,3 with Murray acting the part of
C.P.Snow(1993)indocumentingtheseparationandtryingtoslowit.