Kennedy's Handshake

• Interactive/Self-Organizing Systems by John Fentress, 10/4/97
  
  

Starlings blacken a pasture. I yell at them or honk my horn; they screech, rise almost as one, and circle to the next empty field to resume feeding. I no longer exist for them. Likewise Bill and Monica eventually for the rest of us.

The national spasm about Clinton and Lewinsky abates, running a predictable course that is itself a reflection of our evolved natures. We roller coaster from shock to smaller aftershocks. We see in national politics the oscillatory phenomena described well by Brian Goodwin (1994). Trashing Monica, who did some very human things, may be the next peak on our ride. It's an obvious tactic for alpha to suppress her in order to retain his position although he must do it in a "kind" manner.

Defending Bill is part of an inhibitory phase, perhaps in response to our personal self interests, reawakened by his State of the Union candy scattering, a reminder that he can still do things for us whereas the Vice-President, may be truly ineffective rather than just politically neutered. Nixon was done as soon as Ford was named. Eventually we mutter, preen ourselves, and settle.

A traditional strategy is that "Sluts" are less valued by males and females than are women who are sexually prudent, so she will be labeled a "slut" even if called "immature," "ambitious," or "easily led." There are other kinds of delicate smears. Searching for a spotlight is in her family genes and mine and yours. Her variation is the President, because he's President, has irresistible appeal instead of being middle aged, round bellied, and spindle armed like me. Either bipolar or blond moments are disparaged. Perhaps, she's ADHD and erred because she's impulsive; thus, she will be "diagnosed" rather than explicitly labeled a slut, someone impaired. Other diversions may include blaming the sources of the alarm (whether the internet or the field bird who gave the first call), our information system (the media), or competing alphas (the Right Wing Conspiracy).

Monica will be trashed not only for her perceived sexual cooperation but also because she talked. Her talking will be classed as an adulterous act by males who would have been less upset by her simply falling in love with another male. Ironically, the women's groups now defending the President are an expression of the same male control tactics that women despise when they recognize them. Defending William means spurning Monica. A further irony is that substantial numbers of them ignore his alleged infidelities because he's "doing a good job as president." A nurturant alpha is given extra women; a tyrant takes them. The fun comes when you contemplate possible parity scales for the rest of us men. How much economic or political success translates into how many women? Ted and Martin give some initial measures; school teachers or philandering doctors another.

Women often use alliances for social goals, men for economic (although both uses driven by the same distal cause, that of passing on genes successfully). Monica perhaps first applied her attractiveness and then gossip to build her own standing (passer by becomes enduring feature?), or she or someone else used it to retaliate (Monica's listener?), or to manipulate (set up by either political faction to embarrass the competition?). Guys are apt to misunderstand her likely social motives while women share them. Guys are apt to offer economic gains (job at the Pentagon?) while missing the relevant social ones (even if paying more, the Pentagon is a step down).

Fleeting news leads about Saddam could mean that we have been primed for the next event, the next crisis. However, like the field birds, I could use a moment of quiet time to peck for grubs. Nothing works like sex and aggression to synchronize our interests; we've watched the sex in our minds, time to channel switch to the fights. Saddam and his bacterial allies lurk; eventually Bill might give him to Hillary and the problem will be solved.

We have sequential alarm signals that maintain our current peak. Alpha Bill has sex, the sex could have been with our daughter. (A more strident complaint than someone sneaking sex with our wives? Or, as remarked by a national commentator, "Picture your daughter with the President's penis in her mouth." Better him than the postman? Better her than my wife?) Like all social beings, and the universe is clearly social at all levels otherwise it would not have its present form, we watch eagerly.

The electronic media, our pacemaker, now include the Internet and instantly signal 200 million of us so we react in unison with our neighbors and lunch companions. What a grand flock of starlings. This massive coordination of events, both the content of our news as well as our reactions to it, suggest reciprocal evolved mechanisms, themselves likely products of natural selection. Our minds actively seek information relevant to mating, family maintenance, and deception. The media, also an expression of our extended inheritance, supplies it.

Altruism, loyalty, sex and aggression have been big items in our nature for 3 billion years because they have been big items for our survival. Incest avoidance also lurks in this one ... "She's Chelsea's age." We react with ancient control mechanisms of shunning (impeachment), gossip (he did it before), supervision (the alleged "Bimbo Eruption Team" of the White House), and forgiveness (perhaps the most bizarre idea of the recent weeks, he has a sexual addiction arising from his childhood deprivations).

The White House - James Carville was as savvy a Darwinian as anyone living - appears to have a good understanding of our evolved psychological mechanisms, particularly those for deception. "Look them in the eye and deny everything." "Protect the child," (Chelsea, however, shares her father's and her mother's genes; watch for comparable episodes with her and more likely, with her children. She may have been in private school not only for grilling in excellence and protection from the rest of us, but also for supervision from the Quakers.) "Stand by your man," is an old strategy for alpha females who, for personal interests and those of their children, don't want their guy to take a fall. Apparently the experience is shared by the women married to 56% of American males thought to have had similar experiences. (American 50 year old males? Thus, a shortage of 21 year old women these days?)

Although "Truth" vanishes as it generally does under multiple lenses at close ranges, Monica's ripple follows the principles that apply to molecules, bacteria, or living creatures. Brian Goodwin, Stuart Kauffman, Lynn Margulis, or Charles Darwin's explanatory and predictive schemas all apply. I hope there is a flock of graduate students analyzing this stuff. Certainly, political aides and White House interns will be so doing but for the selfish benefit of their respective groups. The Clinton team's reactions to Monica betray their sophistication. However, their interests are only a partial overlap with my own and I don't want them to be too well informed.

Despite the likely smear, Monica has choices. She can be silent and noble, avoiding any need to lie, leaving us to think her in love or confused. She can be "victim" to a predator but will have to topple him to do so. Idealistic kid with poor social experience? -- a risky tactic. She could win the slut tag if she is sketched as a predator herself, a scheming seductress chasing a vulnerable 50 year old. In the skirmish between youth and wealth, community sympathy is often misplaced with the young (an expression of parental investment?) despite youth's overwhelming tactical advantage when facing an older male.

Monica's long-term outcomes could be good. She has attained the status of a Supernormal Stimulus, an icon. She's very beautiful, lively, reasonably symmetrical, and appears to have the necessary waist:hip ratio. I can't picture any of us rejecting her. She appears to have the essentials to elicit obsessions in every male she encounters. Her flaw may be that the present uproar was not an error of youthful inexperience, that she really is impatient and impulsive to such degree that she will not plan, implement subtle moves, and advance in smaller steps.

Barring a miraculous act of saintliness, Monica will also be chased by decades of alphas and alpha pretenders who want to join the President's Club. "Penthouse" was the first such effort, although willing to pay her $2 million. (Perhaps it's more lucrative in the short term to be chased than chaste? sorry!) If judged a slut, she's a famous and beautiful one; many careers have grown and transformed from more modest platforms. Arguably symbolic of other exchanges, Bill only gave Kennedy a handshake.

REFERENCES:

Darwin, C. (1859) On the Origin of Species. London: Murray.

Goodwin, B (1994) How the Leopard Changed Its Spots: The Evolution of Complexity. NY: Simon & Schuster.

Kauffman, S. (1995) At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity. NY: Oxford.

Margulis L & Sagan, D. (1995) What is Life? NY: Simon & Schuster.

• Yip! by Brian Robinson, 2/7/98