PURE SCIENCE: A Genocide Gene?

For years and years we have been assaulted with dogmatic assertions that genocide is purely a cultural phenomena, that is to be blamed on super-structural features of a society, like, patriarchy, racism, slavery.  Some have claimed that it is a misfiring of our natural tendency towards in-group/out-group patterns of orientation.

But the thrilling new discoveries of scientific methaphorology and statistical correlation have already shed light on how alot of stuff is really all about natural selection.  Just as the rape gene is soon to be discovered, likely adjacent to the allele that causes sodomy, so too will the day come when we can realize that the critics of society who demand radical restructurings and think the world is open wide for whatever wild blueprints they devise have, all this time, really just been criticizing the genes.

First, for those of you who are not scientifically initiated, let me lay out the basics of human behavior, so that you might get a glimpse at what's really going on.

Genes evolved a long time ago.  And all a gene wants to do is make more copies of itself.  This is what you are for.  Your genes just want to make a copy of themselves through reproduction.  This also explains why so many people are interested in cloning, as your genes also want to make a perfect copy of themselves, rather than gambling for dominance with the genes of the person you have sex with.

So the genes will use any means they can to reproduce. The genes also compete against each other, so that one gene in your body wants to get rid of the other genes, so it can just reproduce itself and leave the other genes in your body behind.  But this topic is too much for our present essay.

Getting back to the point, wiping out a whole gene pool, whether it be an actual gene pool or a perceived pool, is a great way for your genes to wittle down the competition.

Now, it is quite possible that our ancestor Homo Habilis was motivated by this same impulse to genocide the Neanderthals.

From the gene's point of view, getting rid of other groups of genes makes sense, since that leaves more resources for themselves.  Also, they'd much rather deal with genes similar to themselves, since there is a shared interest among similar genes in assisting each other in achieving reproduction.  This is called the Kinship Rule.

Now, it is quite likely that there are many more genocide genes than actual genocides.  But usually, these genes are kept in check by social norms (AKA social norm genes.)  In rare instances, you might get a predominance, or a certain critical mass of these genocide genes, and that's when genocidal plans start getting carried out.

So, we see that genes want to do all sorts of things that the Social Norm Gene don't want to happen.  Thus we realize that human nature is everywhere bound by the Social Norms Gene, but never permanently bound.

The view that elimination of genocide is merely a matter of reorganizing societal norms or dealing with socio-economic factors, is thus found to be unnatural.

Much closer to the truth are the notions of SIN and ID.  Sin is the nature that we are tempted to do things against our sense of good/god, but evil factors.  This, really was early man's first intimation of the struggle of genes against other genes.  More recently, Freud understood this genetic conflict in his division of the psyche into Id, Ego, Superego.  The id genes want sex with out mothers, but the Social Norm Gene AKA Superego, holds back the mother-sex genes.

I have faith that some day we might isolate this genocide gene, perhaps by genetic screening among relevant populations (some in Africa, some in South Asia.)

Also, in the meantime, I think it is important that we avoid undue provocation of these genocide genes, such as ethnic solidarity or stimulation of anxiety through promoting the rights of minorities.  Many groups of Americans, at present are precipitously beset by feelings that their group is threatened, by gay marriage, Hispanic immigrants, and other problem groups.  If these threatened groups have a higher than average percentage of genocide genes, then it is simply irresponsible to needlessly provoke the genes in people that they didn't choose to be born with, and which we haven't developed the sufficient technology (allelle extraction) to deal with.