Tradition and Innovation: Reflections on Politics

Individual members of life forms as diverse as dogs, fish and bacteria all display distinctive individual behavior patterns (i.e., "personalities"). These have evolved to maximize the odds that some members of a species will survive regardless of what happens around them. Behavior conducive to survival and reproduction in one situation often fails in another. Hence the need in every population group for a wide spectrum of behavior patterns. These variations recur, embodied in different individuals, generation after generation. The same evolutionary imperative produces the human behavioral diversity that maximizes our odds of survival as a species. Understanding political behavior, as distinct from engaging in partisanship, requires viewing politics with an eye not only for conflicting interests but also for conflicting values that are rooted in different human personality types. "Tradition and Innovation" examines the persistent conflicts generated by natural human variation and considers their role in our cultural evolution from pre-history to the present.