[Joe Gunns]

The Darwinian concept of natural selection provides an explanation for the prevelence of European pacificism.

The theory of Natural Selection holds that the characteristics held by individuals with the greatest reproductive success (in terms of numbers of offspring) are those that become most frequent within subsequent populations.

The huge death tolls on the battlefields of the First and Second World Wars were born by those individuals who were physically able to serve and psychologically willing to serve. They were the ones who, out of a sense of personal honor, loyalty to country or home, desire for adventure, or simply fear of appearing afraid, were willing to put their lives on the line.

At the end of WWI the population graphs of France, Germany and England looked like someone had taken a giant bite out of the 20-45 year old male population, the age group that is in the peak reproductive years. Therefore the next generation was fathered in greater proportion by those who were either physically unfit or psychologically unwilling to meet the call. Then WWII took another "bite" out of that generation, again eliminating a higher percentage of those who, for whatever combination of reasons, were willing to serve.

As well as the genetic impact, this massive loss of individuals of character removed their example and their moral influence from the education of subsequent generations.

The US, having proportionally fewer combat casualties, suffered these effects to a lesser degree.

The current rage of pacificism in Europe can then be seen as not so much an outpouring of moral indignation, but rather the expression of a national timidity bred into the population by the Selection Pressure of a half-century of war. :)


Assumptions and caveats:

-I am a history guy, not a biology guy; a creationist, not an evolutionist. I am not interested in arguing over Darwinian theory. I know that selection works. It definitely affects gene frequency within populations. I would quibble over whether or not it is sufficient to cause speciation, but not about its ability to affect the dominant phenotype of following generations.

-I am assuming that draftees are also among those "willing to put their lives on the line" since they ultimately do serve, sometimes in support positions, often with valor.

-Based on the "post-draft" effect in the USA wherein the institution of a lottery that greatly narrowed the pool of young men who felt "at risk" led to a reduction in size and vehemence of anti-war protests, I assume that those who are antiwar are those who don't want to serve, period. They will always have some excuse, regardless of circumstances.

-I assume that psychological as well as physical characteristics are controlled by genes. The research seems increasingly clear on this point.

-While Blair is supportive on military action in Iraq, polls seem to show that most Brits are not. Therefore they are not an exception to my thesis, but rather a further exemplar thereof.

Well, nuff of that bs. Gotta go watch some gratuitous violence.

Joe

[Blackhawk]

Good cocktail party theory anyway.... :D

[Malone LaVeigh]

Yeah, it's too bad all those men of high moral character were taken out of the German gene pool. They might be supporting some kind of war of aggression about now if they weren't.

[pbman]

I thought of that i wile ago.

Probably all the sport shooters died in ww1, this would accont for the little oposition their was to gun control in the UK>

[cuchulainn]

You are assuming that the "fit-for-war" trait is inherited only from the father (on top of assuming that the vast majority of killed European soldiers died prior to breeding despite there being plenty of war orphans from both wars).

John, Jean, Johann and Ivan may have died in the trenches, but they each probably had numerous sisters who were not killed and who could have passed along the "fit-for-war" trait, if such exists.

...what Blackhawk said ;)

[Atticus]

Interesting theory. Maybe those men left behind in WWI and WWII were (S). Secretly (C.) Copulating (R.) Rearguard (E.) European (W.) Wives. Now... the S.C.R.E.W. group are trying to spread their message to the rest of the world.

[Joe Gunns]

You folks buyin' the cocktails? I'm in.

cuchulainn (how do you pronounce that - koo-chew-lay-in?)
True, female contributions to gene pool cannot be ignored, howsomeever, lower pool of gutsy guys still means less frequency of guts in subsequent generations.

Malone LaVeigh - Yeah, you'd think the Germans would be hot to trot for another "aggressive war" rather than having "moral objections" to it."

Adios

[cuchulainn]

coo-hoo-lin

[.45Ruger]

Another theory would be that the truly superior soliders survived that war but hated the sestruction they saw so much that they would doanything to avoid war ever again including giving in to third world dictators. Obviously this theory doesn't work except for Germany. France had Vietnam, and the Suez war. Britain had the Falklands and Russia had Afganistan.

[ahadams]

I'm a creationist like Joe, but would like to suggest that there's a reason we had to go over and help the brits haul the frogs' bacon out of the fire twice in the 20th Century: I think that Joe has the generally correct idea, but that he hasn't gone back far enough. Remember Napoleon required all of the members of his Guards units to be something like 6 feet tall. When was the last time you saw a french basketball player in pro basketball? I'm willing to bet that Napoleon decimated the French gene pool and it's never recovered.

just my 2 cents' worth,

[Beorn]

I for one, find this postulation quite amusing. With some work, it could be made into a case for American Primer Noctem.

But who would "take one for the team" with some of those cheese eating surrender monkeys?

[bad_dad_brad]

We can all speculate. Truth is, we have no clue. But I have often held the theory that America is that rebellious place it has always been because all the recalcitrant people in Europe immigrated here.

We are all arm-chair quarterbacks and geneticists - popular scientists all. America - ya gotta love it.

[Poodleshooter]

It's not genetic, its behavioral.
When all the warriors died in war, a larger portion of the population were born of and raised by fathers who were either unfit for war or dodged conscription.
It's a nice cocktail theory. Sounds as if it would be enormously fun to tease European friends with.

[Joe Gunns]

ahadams - good show! I will list you as a co-author when published in some learned journal. :)

[Waitone]

Nah! Its all based in love for filthy lucre.

Sadaam successfully bought off France with oil field development contracts which were well above market prices. They also got a few contracts related to infrastructure rebuild and weapons development. France is major league dirty in Sadaam's WMD program.

Germany was got contracts for pesticide production equipment. They also got oils prices below market prices. Rumor has it Germany is the source of Sadaam's mobile bio labs.

Russia was able to purchase Iraqi oil well below market prices so they could resell to other countries (such as the US). Russia also is the beneficiary of the Soviets incomprehensible bio weapons program.

Percentage of population which is Islamic
--France 9%
--Germany 3%
--Russia 7%

Rumors are floated that at least Germany and France has struck deals with Islamofascist terrorist to keep operations out of their countries. In other words they bought peace in an effort to keep substantial portions of their populations fat, dumb, and happy.

Combine state economies down on the heels with someone who is fabulously wealthy with significant Islamic populations and you have everything needed for appeasement.

[moa]

Did anybody notice a article in the papers about a week ago about a North Korean ship seen leaving a German port?

This is the same North Korean ship intercepted at sea some weeks ago with a load of Scud missiles bound for Yemen that were hidden under a cargo of bagged cement.

The article said the cargo of the ship was sodium cyanide. Sodium cyanide is very poisonous by itself. It is also and ingredient for the manufacture nerve agents such as poison gases.

I would bet that the French and the Germans have been knowingly and probably illegally aiding and abetting Iraq's WMD programs to some degree for quite a while, and do not want the world to find out.

France and Germany's strong level of opposition to a military showdown with Irag seems bizarre considering they are not fielding any troops.

[MeekandMild]

Interesting. I recall from my high school chemistry clqass they used to use cyanide to case harden steel for rifles.

[Selfdfenz]

A genetic explanation would only be possible if the desired trait(s)
(bravery, willingness to fight, etc ) were sex linked. And also possibly that the scaredy-cat gene(s) were linked to the "4F" gene cluster.
These characteristics would have to be a Y-chromosome (male) thing as it were to make this idea run.

But then again you would have to account for some way to explain that all wounded, but brave, surviving veterens never had kids following the war.

Too few generations also, me thinks, but maybe so.

Is that Stoli in the .....yes, I will have another,thanks.

S-