I’m talking about the fight/fuck/dominate hormones. Testosterone, estrogen. The reason why putting a pretty girl in an advertisement works so well. And it might explain a lot of aggression too.
Take them out of the equation and that’s 99% of politics, advertising and popular music gone.
So what would that look like for society?
Would it be Star Trek? Would it be a dystopia?
What about the individual??
Flat effect no ambition misery? Or creative powerhouse and visionary?
Give me your speculations.
Personal experience: I spent my entire youth and a large portion of my adulthood being amazingly preoccupied with sex, and with a fair amount of aggression towards everyone and everything.
Between testiulcar cancer, many consistent years of antidepressants, and just being old, I am finally feeling relief from those. I don’t claim to be a “creative powerhouse and visionary” by any stretch, but I am far from having a flat affect, I’m no more or less ambitious than I was before, and I am decidedly less miserable.
In hindsight, I can see that libido and aggression have always been an obstacle to my reaching my potential. Having built some bad habits over decades, they still are. None of us get to accomplish everything we want, so I’m trying not to fret about it too much.
Overall, as an individual whose life experience has changed from one extreme to the other - whether hormones have anything to do with it or not - I much prefer the current stage in my life to the former.
I think that St Augustine cut off his balls. Puberty was coming on. He didn’t like what it was doing to his clarity of mind. So he grabbed the scissors.
He was an impressive guy.
Born 1700 years ago. He adapted Classical thought to Christian teaching and created a powerful theological system of lasting influence. He also shaped the practice of biblical exegesis and helped lay the foundation for much of medieval and modern Christian thought.
So there’s one argument for. If he was born today he might have written a nice video game.
The influence of these hormones, it could be likened to being drunk all the time. But everybody’s drunk, so it’s normal.
Maybe later generations will invent a switch or a therapy.