fishwrappin

A profile of Errol Morris and "The Fog of War" in today's AJC. Nice to find this in our sorry little paper, though the story is not available online. Oddly however, this one is and it's only online. The subject of "The Fog of War" is former secretary of defense Robert McNamara, a gentleman responsible for much human suffering in the 20th century. His consumate politician's secret to doing interviews: "Never answer the question you are asked," he advises. "Answer the question you wish you were asked." Morris says "one of the things we learn from him (McNamara) is that people don't seem to learn from anything...We are in the process of repeating many of the mistakes that we have made in the past." Morris also offers this little bit of wisdom that reminds me of why I enjoy his films: "I like to remind myself, after all, we are a bunch of chimpanzees running around."

Today's paper also features a reprint of an article from the L.A. Times by Michael Shermer about religion and the evolution of morality. It dresses up a standard sociological explanation for religion in the language of evolution:

By 10,000 years ago, our species had spread to nearly every region of the globe and people everywhere lived where they could hunt and gather. This system tended to contain populations, but agriculture allowed them to explode. With those increased populations came new social technologies for governance and conflict resolution: politics and religion.

The moral emotions — guilt, pride, shame, altruism — evolved genetically in those tiny bands of 100 to 200 people as a form of social control and group cohesion. One means of accomplishing this was through reciprocal altruism — "I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine."

It's not available on the AJC site, that I can find anyway, but it is available from the LATimes (requires free registration). Why, someone please tell me why, the AJC is content to be so mediocre? They badly need someone with a clear vision of what a good newspaper is. And remember friends: answer the question you wish they had asked, it's good for social control and group cohesion. Why, yes thank you, I would like my back scratched.