The underlying conditions which produce r and K are on a spectrum, to some degree, although true K lies short of the real end of it’s side of the spectrum. As you head towards the extreme of K, things begin to break down, due to resource restriction causing population densities to drop, and the rules of r/K breaking down. If individuals are spread out so thin they rarely encounter each other, group competition is meaningless, and two-parent rearing in a large family impossible. So one requires a certain degree of resource availability to create K as we know it.
I suppose a small amount of r is nice to temper the ferocity, but my opinion on the matter is meaningless – little more than a personal preference to be able to let my hair down on occasion. The bare truth is, r emerges in response to resource availability and diminution in conflict, and K emerges in response to the opposite, with nothing more to be added.
Along those lines, we now see Afghanistan begin its own slide toward r, with the first young lady to walk through Kabul with her legs showing in quite some time. This is technically movement on the r/K continuum, though so minor as to be nearly insignificant. From a practical standpoint, that young lady wouldn’t be worried about whether she could show off her legs or not, if food was non-existent, and everyone were killing each other. It is only as conditions become more comfortable that you begin to worry about such things, and that is accentuated by dopamine sensitivity affects producing a desire for neurological stimulation. Now that Afghanistan has security, of a sort, and resources are flowing in the form of US aid and opium profits, that will increase. How far it will get before a collapse is unknown, but since the only thing to forestall a collapse is the ability to endure the detriments of r, I suspect not far. All it will take is one minor economic burp, or a single despot with a gun, and the rabbits there will cow under and disappear again.
Girls wearing skirts is a meaningless step in the slide toward r. Where it becomes problematical is when you take it too far, as we have in the United States. At some point the small dopamine addiction that initially produces a minor increase in sexual drives, and a minor increase in attention-seeking, transitions into a full on addiction necessitating breaks with reality and self-destruction of the nation.
As the rabbits begin castigating men who landed probes on comets, for the patterns on their shirts not begin sensitive enough to everyone’s tastes, and women firefighters begin getting hired, despite the fact their inability will inevitably kill someone, things will begin to go downhill. Resource addiction will corrupt the finances of the nation, destroy the unity of its people, and eventually collapse the entire societal structure, at least for a while.
Personally, I’d prefer if it didn’t, but as I said, preferences are meaningless. As resources wax and wane, so will r and K. All you can do is recognize what is, see what will be, and prepare accordingly.
Now that Afghanistan has security, of a sort, and resources are flowing in the form of US aid and opium profits, that will increase.
Opium profits above the profits on tomatoes are a function of Prohibition.
And yet “conservatives” insist on prohibition. Well what does that do? It creates another victim group amenable to r agitation. The opiates are of course minor. Where the heavy action is located is cannabis. And for that there are serious problems.
Cannabinoid medicine if fully exploited could save $1 trillion a year. The endocannabinoid system of the body scavenges and kills cancer cells. If it gets out of whack cannabis (with the right balance of cannabinoids) can cure cancer. 586,000 die of cancer every year. Think about the anti K propaganda available there. That is mass murder even at 1/10th those numbers.
That is the best. Now what about the worst? Prohibition destroys families through mass incarceration – mainly of the poor. And the poor in America are mainly Black. To the outside observer (look at the stats) it looks like a race war. More material for the r faction.
You are not going to get a redress of the social situation with a police state. It will just accelerate the slide. Failing r societies also produce police states and mass murder. The police state engendered by Prohibition can be redirected into a war on Ks when the r faction gets power.
The only real safety is in very small very limited government. The foundation of the US and now only of remnant popularity. Neither r nor K is interested in that. Both hope to achieve their aims by force.
Although I advertise as Anonymous Conservative, I am fairly open that instinctually I am Libertarian leaning. I view r/K as explaining what you describe, and therefore useful to anyone who wants to shape the debate on that issue.
K’s want their group in tip-top fighting shape, so they insist on social conformity, and want to eradicate things which weaken members. I see the drug war as an out-growth of that urge. Personally, I am not a drug war fan, though I think it has use in justifying the incarceration of a lot of bad people, and it helps out intel agencies get footholds overseas, ala the DEA, “NSA’s little brother.”
That said, if I wanted to generate support for ending the drug war, I’d focus Conservative amygdalae on the fact that the drug war is wasting money we don’t have, to keep weak and stupid junkies alive so they can vote for Democrats and destroy our nation. The practical truth is, if you ended the drug war, drug use would cull a large number of future leftists and the low-information types from the population. I’d bet the average drug warrior, by keeping future leftists and democrat voters alive through drug-denial, probably does more damage to America’s future than the baddest-assed ISIS member could ever dream of doing. The left will collapse our federal government, and for a time, plunge a large part of America into anarchy and suffering. How many terrorists could ever do that?
Practically, I doubt at this point you can get rid of the drug war, or even diminish it. Too many LE agencies are surviving on seizures, our intel agencies need the threat of narco-insurgencies to get foreign countries to give them full access to their telecommunication and electronic information systems, and there are just too many companies which would have nothing to do, if they didn’t provide some item or service used in the drug war. The powers aligned against the ending of the drug war are just too powerful.
We are in that terminal stage where much of the system is a corrupt racket, but it retains enough power to fight for itself, and keep itself alive within our governmental system. Until the whole system goes down and resources are forcibly restricted by reality, we are stuck watching the collapse in slow-motion.
[…] Afghanistan Begins the Slide Toward r […]
Girls wearing skirts is a meaningless step in the slide toward r. Where it becomes problematical is when you take it too far, as we have in the United States.