[MUD-Dev] Decision making...

[Mike Rozak]

Rayzam wrote:

> Hierarchies in primate social groups have nothing to do with
> fairness.  Larger, more powerful, scarier, better fighters, etc,
> are the alpha males.  They run their social group. They get the
> food they want, they get the females they want, they get what they
> want, when they want it. They smack around others who get in the
> way, and put the rest of the hierarchy in its place. There's
> nothing fair about this. Beta males also get food and females, but
> only when the alpha's needs are met. Often in fact, their sexual
> needs are met by the submissive males. There is often a secondary
> hierarchy of the females. In these hierarchies and social groups,
> there is not much fairness.

I don't think this statement is exactly correct:

For one, the original post I made about fairness being an issue for
monkeys.

I saw a documentary on chimps where there were two potential alpha
males. One used agression (as you describe above), the other used
politics (by killing some animal and doling out the meat to his
2nd's). The one using politics ultimately became alpha-male.

In baboons (?) there is a dominant male with a harem of females. The
females ultimately play a large role in deciding who the dominant
male will be. In the one documentary I saw, the male used an infant
to protect itself against an attacking male, and was instantly
"voted down" by the females. Might is not always right.

In humans, George W. Bush is not particularly strong, physically or
mentally... Bush uses the political solution, as I mentioned for the
chimps, doling out his takings to his 2nds.

Mike Rozak
http://www.mxac.com.au
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