Showing posts with label sexual harassment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sexual harassment. Show all posts

Friday, July 20, 2007

Psychology Today: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

Psychology Today: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths about Human Nature appeared in Psychology Today, the work of Alan S. Miller Ph.D. and Satoshi Kanazawa Ph.D.

ISN'T THIS TRUTHS ABOUT OUR ANIMAL NATURE??

The findings are things like men are attracted to blond Barbie-types; humans are naturally polygamous; women benefit from polygyny, while men benefit from monogamy; most suicide bombers are Muslim; having sons reduces the likelihood of divorce; beautiful people have more daughters; Bill Gates and Paul McCartney have something in common with criminals (waning competitiveness); what Clinton did was “natural”, and men who harass women at work aren’t discriminating, they’re treating them like men--at last. Trivers-Willard theory included. Read full article here.

Some of these things are not just politically incorrect, they are things that many humans endeavor to avoid. They are wrong. And what they are 'wrong' to is our limbic brain and neocortex. We avoid them because we have emotional intelligence.

---Not all men leave their middle aged wives.
---Some people become their most creative and "competitive" in later years, in all fields: Goethe, Nancy Fenn, the Kentucky Colonel.
---When conditions in a country include things that favor suicide-bombing, the vast majority still say "no thanks" and/or emigrate to a country where conditions are more favorable to a good life.
---And some CEOs and alpha males don't get Neanderthal with men OR women in the workplace.

ISN'T THIS ABOUT OUR ANIMAL NATURE, our reptilian brains?

And hasn't most of our time on earth been about getting above the pure animal nature?
Civilized people have always tried to behave, well, not like animals.

Even the Pope comes around and apologizes for what is not just "politically incorrect," but plain out wrong. For missionary abuses aginst indigenous people of the South Pacific, for the persecution of Galileo Galilei (yes there was harassment in his workplace).

After all, it's is also a "truth" about our so-called "human nature" to kill what bothers you. It is the way that some of these alpha males have chosen to compete -- by wiping out whole countries. Just that the killing isn't mentioned, because that's really not politically correct.

We have 3 brains, and it's what makes us human. We are especially noted, as humans, for our neocortex -- the one that allows us to think about thinking. So while these things may be compelling from the reptilian brain, they need not be acted upon. In many cases it is best NOT to act on them. Just because it's in the range of possible behaviors available to you doesn't mean you have to do it, or should do it. Come on now.

It's fine to 'note' that you lust for gorgeous men who walk by. It's more emotionally intelligent, and more "human" (as opposed to opearing like an instinctively-functioning animal) to say 'so what?' and go back home to your husband whom you love and have made a committment to. For the Good Life.

Not all men want to marry a blond Barbie. They find a fine, loving brunette who might even be middle-aged, whom they know will make a good wife. It isn't all about the passing on of the genes. It's isn't all about the reptilian brain which was programmed eons ago.

It's time to crawl up out of the swamp, as it were. It isn't all about what your genes think would make your genes survive. i.e., IT ISN"T ALL ABOUT YOU.

Of course it's good to know that some people function mindlessly at this level so you can be prepared. EQ -- if something's likely to be used against you, it's good to know about it!

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Americans Should Show More Emotional Intelligence in Iraq?

Is this the clueless listening to the clueless?

"As we Americans plan our strategy for Iraq, let's show more emotional intelligence." This is the subtitle of Op-Ed Columnist Nicholas D. Kristof (New York Times) article "Cut and Walk" published December 5, 2006. It is available HERE if you are a subscriber, which I am not.

The blogs are hastening to address this comment and article.

On NewsBusters: Exposing and Combating Liberal Media Bias, Mark Finkelstein says Kristof's column reads like "something that might have been written by warm 'n fuzzy Stuart Smalley, the SNL character Al Franken hilariously immortalized before deciding he had serious things to say. "

I agree with one of the commentators to Finkelstein's blog - I'm not going to pay to read the article, which is pay-per-view. But I want to comment on the comments, in the defense of Emotional Intelligence. It should not in any way be linked to Stuart Smalley. Though it's a common misconception, to segue into that, no matter what Kristof said, is misleading.

It is a common misconception, by those who have not studied the field of Emotional Intelligence that it's about "touchy feely."

What's touchy-feely about a manager losing his temper, slugging an employee and bringing on a lawsuit?

What's Stuart Smalley about a CEO being so depressed about his divorce that he's out drinking all night and carousing, and unable to pay attention to the bottom-line?

Is there something "weak" about a person who is so out of touch with their gut feeling that they continually make precisely the wrong move in every sensitive situation?

Is there something to laugh about when a nuclear engineer whose IQ is 170 is so out-of-touch with the real world, she fails to notice a hiss and change in temperature that would have warned her to get everyone out before the place blew up? (I coached a consultant in the UK who works with people who work in dangerous fields to get them in touch with their EQ - the only thing that can keep them safe. )

And there's nothing group-hug about getting someone under control who can't control the feeling of lust and thereby jeopardizes your corporation with his continual sexual harassment, about which he is "clueless."

Again, I don't know how Kristof applied Emotional Intelligence in re: Iraq, but I don't like to see the field of Emotional Intelligence cast in this sort of disparaging light.

Note that I did not read Kristof's article and so I do not critique it. If you haven't studied Emotional Intelligence, should you be critiqueing it? There's a distinction between criticizing the field of Emotional Intelligence, and criticizing how Kristop uses the term and what he writes in his article.

And knowing that difference if part of what Emotional Intelligence is all about.

Here 's a place where you can read about it: www.susandunn.cc .
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Read my article on BuildYourOwnBusiness - "How Managers Use Emotional Intelligence Like Map Coordinates".

Art used by permission, www.claudiafernety.com .