THE MOLECULE OF MOREA NATION GOVERNED BY IDEAS (VIA BIOLOGY)[According to] Ashleymadison.com, a dating Web site for married people looking
for extramarital affairs,... [Washington, DC] topped a list ranking the country’s
most adulterous cities for the third year in a row... And the neighborhood with
the most cheaters? Capitol Hill, the land of politicians, staffers and lobbyists.
—Washington Post, May 20, 2015The essence of government is control. People may submit to being con-
trolled as a result of conquest, or they may voluntarily give up some of
their freedom in exchange for protection. Either way, a small number
of people are given power to exert authority over the rest of the popula-
tion. It’s a dopaminergic activity because the populace is governed from
a distance through abstract laws. Although the threat of H&N violence
is used to enforce the law, most people never experience it. They submit
to ideas, not physical force.
Since government is inherently dopaminergic, liberals tend to be
more enthusiastic about it than H&N conservatives. Five hundred lib-
erals marching down the street are probably staging a protest. With
conservatives, it’s more likely a parade. In addition to their enthusi-
asm for engaging in the political process, liberals are also more likely to
pursue advanced degrees in public policy, and they’re often attracted
to fields such as journalism in which they are involved in the political
process on a daily basis. Conservatives, by contrast, are more often dis-
trustful of government, especially government that acts at a distance.
Conservatives tend to prefer local governance, with power exerted at
the state or local level rather than federally.
Distance matters. Thinking back to the trolley problem, it’s eas-
ier to maximize resources when emotions are taken out of the picture.
Pushing a person onto the tracks to stop a train is nearly impossible.
Flipping a switch from far away is easier. Similarly, many laws bene-
fit some people but harm others. The farther away you get, the eas-
ier it is to tolerate some degree of harm in the service of the greater
good. Distance insulates politicians from the immediate consequences