If the baby appears in ANY of Hillary's campaign ads, you will know we're all going to be screwed, too. Again.

"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, and that that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these rights are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Declaration of Independence, Jefferson
I see no room for royalty there. Kind of makes you sick doesn't it?
Locke also destroyed any notions of traceable lineage for hereditary right in kings in his first treatise on government.

May their healthy lives of obscurity be silent.

It is best to study eugenics in the original German. Puts things in the proper perspective.
I agree with theBeav
Cheers

Or they are all ended up in the dumpster behind planned parenthood.

If having Bill's DNA makes a baby "royal" I'm betting there are plenty of them around already...

OK, here's a starter: http://www.gamepuzzles.com/8memes.pdf

puzzle, we are ready for some teasers-please?

Yes, I am familiar, including Susan Blackmore's work. I'm doing a book on meme theory that's, shall I say, a unique approach likely to gore many oxen.

I'd like to see a post on this guys. are you both familiar with memetics? is that the correct spelling? I am interested to know more

Agreed. Thank you for an interesting discussion. We will chat more anon.

Jan

Agreed! Well said

Breeding a line of kings not given to folly--in brief, incorruptible benevolent dictators--is not my idea of an individualist's free society. I would not care to be anyone's "subject". I will continue to make the case that values are formed as memes, not produced in the genes. The genes just supply the machinery in which the software develops.

Affinity for religiosity, and whether genes or memes, is a fascinating topic, Jan, and one I am most interested in exploring. Only this is not the place--the column is too narrow for typing and reading. Maybe it needs its own thread.

Yes, I'm familiar with the passage from Hamlet. I did not misquote it by mistake. I deliberately altered it for this new and different meaning. Hence the apology to Will.

Puzzlelady - It is your theory that integrity is a meme not a molecule. I make the counter, however, that if as vague a notion as 'religiosity' could be genetically inherited (for which there is some evidence) then it is not impossible that 'integrity' could be genetic as well. I have absolutely no evidence integrity is genetic - let me be clear about that. It is not beyond imagining that it might be, though, and so I posed the argument that it might be possible to make the 'folly of hereditary kings' not a folly...or at least less of a folly. It would be a general improvement, in my opinion, if one were to merely be able to eliminate the 'asses'.

Jan

(from memory)

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged, comrade.
Beware of entrance to a quarrel but, being in it,
Bear it that the enemy shouldst beware of thee!
Give each man thy ear, but few thy voice,
Accept each man's council, but reserve thy judgement.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy: Rich, not gaudy,
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For a loan oft looses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
And this above all: To thine own self be true.
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Off the cuff:
To Thine own self be true
and it must follow as
the night the day
Thou canst not then
be false to any man.
be false to any man

Wow, what might happen if it was "O's" and "M's" baby coming right from the big house? Could they rule for decades?

Dynasties are laughable, admired only in fairytales. They are no longer effective ways to run a land. After a few generations of inbreeding, their original genetic superiority wears out. Ruling families are an idea whose time has passed. Selective breeding for power (did you read "Dune") wants to corral the wealth. In today's world meritocracy is the new aristocracy... or ought to be.

Jan, it's not a gene. It's a meme. Integrity is a concept, not a molecule. My own formula on rulers is:
"Neither a leader nor a follower be,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
You will not then be slave to any man."
(With apologies to Will Shakespeare)

I like the idea of not creating a race of leaders

At minimum a gene cluster, I agree. And if you are correct, then a slimy politician would be better than a brilliant bipolar ruler on a bad day!

Jan

Thank you for disagreeing so gently. No gene will protect against fallibility, so we are all save from that future. But there is no advantage to having a second rate leader. Let me rephrase this: If we could have a line of rulers who were like the mythical King Arthur (insofar as being good and incorruptible) would that be worse than being governed by some of the politicians we have been discussing on this list?

Jan

I did not think that 'religiosity' could be genetically inherited, but supposedly it does have a high genetic correlation. (I think it is likely to be more than one gene - heck! even hair color is a 4 or 5 gene complex.) I do not say, note, that integrity is a gene, but I do posit a possibility that it is.

Jan

You may be right about the "meme" thing. I think that people in general have always and will always idolize the strong among us. Perception is what fires their rockets.