First of all, I was happy that this piece was one of the assigned readings because I had Professor Von Rueden last semester and read this article before. I was really interested in how what we have learned so far in this class applies to his teachings of 102. First statement claims that leadership is the primary way of resolving cooperation problems. Until now, we have talked about how communication is the most important factor. I am assuming that good leadership fosters communication which in turn breeds cooperation. I also thought bringing evolution into our argument was interesting and a necessary topic to discuss. I understand why cooperation was so important in small scale societies for survival, but have those same tendencies really followed us to today’s modern world? And are they still applicable? Then again, I understand how reproductive success due to good leadership qualities would pass along those genes that promote survival and leadership. I also find the point about our desire for tall, strong leaders very interesting. I think it is easy to compare this mismatch hypothesis to current world leaders today like Donald Trump. Having a physically strong leader, whether they are fit for the job or not, will instinctively make followers feel safer and have more trust in their leader, even if the threat is something that cannot be stopped by strength (i.e. a nuclear bomb). Overall, it was cool seeing how much genetic impact the environment of small scale markets and societies effect our leadership tendencies today.
Critical Thinking
It is interesting to think about how we want our leaders to have both traits of physical strength and age. Typically, once we pass a certain age our bodies decline in strength and ability in general. If we want those physical strength qualities it make me think we would want leaders that are in their 20s and 30s, but because we want them to have more experience, etc. we typically like people to be at least 10 years older than that when they might be at the beginning of their decline in terms of physical ability.
I think that having faith in a leader physically is something that we usually don’t think a lot about but actually is important. A few weeks ago in a democratic debate, the participants were discussing the importance of releasing their health records. At the time I thought it was insignificant, however looking back I did have a lot more faith in those that had proven that they were healthy.
I admire that you are able to draw connections between your experience in Critical Thinking with Dr. Von Rueden’s perspective as you got to learn from one of the authors himself. We can draw similar connections across time periods and apply to modern-day leaders such as Trump, as you mentioned above.