Biosocial and epigenetic relativity of human nature: Relative to political economy, technology, and culture. Updated July 7, 2023

By Fazal Rahman, Ph.D.

Written 1982.     Posted on September 7, 2015

It is a long article with many additions

Epigenetics and epigenetic evolution stand in relation to conventional genetics and Darwinian evolution, as Einsteinian physics stands in relation to Newtonian physics. Fazal Rahman

“It is a question of the Third World starting a new history of Man, a history which will have regard to the sometimes prodigious theses which Europe has put forward, but which will also not forget Europe’s crimes, of which the most horrible was committed in the heart of man, and consisted of the pathological tearing apart of his functions and the crumbling away of his unity.”
Frantz Fanon

The Wretched of the Earth, (Fanon, 1963, p. 315).

“We all live under the constant threat of our own annihilation. Only by the most outrageous violation of ourselves have we achieved our capacity to live in relative adjustment to a civilization apparently driven to its own destruction.”
R. D. Laing

The Politics of Experience/The Bird of Paradise (R.D. Laing, 1967)

Abstract

This and an earlier paper (Rahman 1980) have ventured into the terra incognita and focused on the effects of social environment on the epigenetic and biosocial regulation of human nature.  Undoubtedly, there are also the effects of natural and physical environment on such regulation, which are also important to investigate.  Various research studies with other forms of life, cited in the Review of Literature in these papers, reveal how changes in the internal and external physical environmental factors cause corresponding epigenetic and gene regulatory changes in various organisms.

A dialectical theory is developed in these papers on the dialectical and relative nature and regulation of human nature, in relation to and in interactions with the politico-economic, mass psychological, and cultural systems and processes of the social environment.  The main focus is on the totally un-researched and unknown areas and effects of such regulation on the epigenetic and gene regulatory dimensions. Some recent research findings which clearly demonstrate that domestication forces and pressures and directional selection (analogous to changes in the politico-economic and cultural forces and pressures in humans) bring about tangible and heritable gene regulatory changes in some animals are reviewed and correlated with the hypotheses and discoveries of our theoretical research. It is concluded that the imperialist capitalism-science and technology-culture complex, especially in its extremist forms and advanced stages, like those of the US, gives rise to extreme imbalances in the differential socio-genetic regulation of human nature.

Destruction of the ecology of nature is dialectically related to the destruction of the ecology of human nature, both being the historical products of the co-evolution of capitalism and technology.

The Legacy of the Assad Family’s Decades-Long Rule in Syria

Ekaterina Blinova

https://sputnikglobe.com/20241209/the-legacy-of-the-assad-familys-decades-long-rule-in-syria-1121135974.html

Note by Fazal Rahman

This article by a well informed Russian writer, Ekaterina Blinova, describes the positive foreign policy and other accomplishments of Bashar al-Assad and, before him, his father, Hafez al-Assad.  There is no doubt that US, Western, and Turkish interference in Syria and their funding, arming, and training of Al-Qaeda connected and other Jihadis groups played a major role in destabilizing and impoverishing Syria, especially the US occupation and theft of gas and oil fields, and important food producing areas, and unleashing of civil war in 2011, which forced millions to flee to other countries as refugees.  However, evidence is emerging of imprisonment of large numbers of Syrians in prisons with dismal conditions, where they were beaten, tortured, and malnourished during the later years of Bashar al-Assad’s rule, which cannot be justified in any way, and must be condemned.  His overthrow has definitely weakened the Axis of Resistance against Israel and emboldened Israel to expand its aggressions, with the US and Western support.  It has also enhanced the influence of Turkiye in that area and reduced Russia’s.

End of note

Elon Musk calls homelessness a ‘lie’ and ‘propaganda’ — and Trump is listening

Trump and his billionaire allies are out of touch with a crisis facing more than 600,000 Americans, advocates tell Alex Woodward

Thursday 12 December 2024 05:12 GMT

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-homeless-trump-b2662999.html

To Elon Musk, the word “homeless” is a “lie” and “a propaganda word.”

“Homeless is a misnomer. It implies that someone got a little bit behind on their mortgage, and if you just gave them a job, they’d be back on their feet,” he told former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson in October. “What you actually have are violent, drug zombies with dead eyes and needles and human feces on the street.”

The more money spent combating homelessness, “the worse it gets,” according to Musk.

Musk — who has funneled more than $250 million into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign — is now directing lawmakers and the White House to make drastic, potentially devastating cuts to federal agencies that support millions of vulnerable Americans, including thousands of people experiencing homelessness.

Making a Killing: How US Taxpayer Money Goes Directly Into Weapons Makers’ Pockets to Arm Ukraine

Ilya Tsukanov

https://sputnikglobe.com/20241202/making-a-killing-how-us-taxpayer-money-goes-directly-into-weapons-makers-pockets-to-arm-ukraine-1121072925.html

Note by Fazal Rahman

Having been a military, economic, and political superpower, US imperialism has become addicted to unleashing numerous direct and proxy wars against and invasions of incomparably weaker countries, especially since the Second World War, in which its Military-Industrial-Media-Academic-Complex (MIMAC) played the leading role.  Arms manufacturers were the dominant part of that complex and harvested fabulous profits from those wars and invasions.  Even though they have done the same in the proxy war of US and NATO against Russia in Ukraine, Russia is a superpower too and is unlike any of the previous victims of US imperialism.  This proxy war has already failed miserably, after investments of hundreds of billions of dollars in military and financial aid to Ukraine, and Russia now has accelerated its advances into Ukraine, the leaders of which have been desperately pushing for involving NATO and US directly into this war, which will inevitably start the Third World War, which will destroy human and most other forms of life on this planet.  Under the influence of MIMAC, American political leadership made one of the worst blunders in the history of this country.  However, the arms manufacturers have and continue to make fabulous profits, some of which they share with their partners in MIMAC.

Sputnik Investigates: Why Doesn’t US Ban the Use of Atrazine?

https://sputnikglobe.com/20241124/sputnik-investigates-why-doesnt-us-ban-the-use-of-atrazine-1120986676.html

Svetlana Ekimenko

Note by Fazal Rahman

In the extremist capitalist-imperialist system and society of USA, there are thousands of herbicides, pesticides, and other chemical products that are extremely damaging to health of humans and other forms of life, but are sources of enormous profits for the corporations and businesses.  The herbicides, Atrazine and Paraquat, have various scientifically proven debilitating effects on human health and have been banned in numerous countries for that reason, but not in the US, where,  for all practical purposes, profits and money have been elevated to the status of God.  Under the incoming Donald Trump administration, these and innumerable other problems are going to get much worse.

End of note 

2024 on track for hottest year on record as humanity ‘torching planet’, UN warns

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) says international datasets show 2024 outstripping 2023’s record heat.

Emily Beament

Thursday 07 November 2024 15:28 GMT

https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/world-meteorological-organisation-antonio-guterres-paris-friends-of-the-earth-spain-b2643204.html

This year is on track to be the world’s hottest on record, with UN boss Antonio Guterres warning humanity was paying the price for “torching the planet”.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said data from six global datasets from January to September show 2024 is on track to be the warmest year on record, with the global average near surface temperature even higher than 2023’s record heat.