Violence, Versatility, and the Choices of Men

Two evolutionary biology papers have stuck with me because I believe they give a glimpse into that gray area where fate and human freedom clash.  I will be coming at this from a male perspective because some of the science is specific to men, and also because I am a man, but I believe similar and perhaps even richer arguments can be made for women as well, so stick with me, whoever you are.  The first paper is titled The evolution of violence in men: the function of central cholesterol and serotonin (unfortunately you can only see the abstract for free unless you are in the halls of academia).  I don't want to get too bogged down in the details, but the main point of the argument is that violence in men has been selected for through serotonin signaling, specifically its breakdown, when there is a lack of high cholesterol food available.  In short, men are hard-wired for violence, particularly when there is a lack of food available and hunting or fighting other humans for resources is necessary.  It is a dark side of human nature, particularly for men.  Does that mean we all have to be violent, to choose violence?  No, but it is an ever present storm that men must temper.

The second paper is called The evolution of dopamine systems in chordates (and the article is free of charge for all), and points toward another aspect of our behavioral hard-wiring that we all have (this science is not specific to men or women).  Dopamine is a neurotransmitter linked to many behavioral aspects in humans, and is in a class of molecules called catecholamines that also includes adrenaline (epinephrine), noradrenaline (norepinephrine), and L-DOPA, a molecule used to treat Parkinson's disease.  Humans have 5 distinct dopamine receptors that regulate a broad range of physiological responses.  Again, I don't want to get too bogged down in the technical details, so the main point of this paper is that the dopamine system is functionally flexible, which allowed for it to be co-opted over evolutionary time to adapt the brain to give vertebrates the ability to survive in many different environments and ways of life.  In short, it makes us versatile.

So here we have two papers that tell us we have evolved to be both violent and versatile.  Interestingly, the ancient Greek poet Homer seemed to have figured this out long before us scientists, encoding these human natures in his two most famous heroes, Achilles and Odysseus.  The Iliad tells the tale of Achilles and his centrality to the Trojan war with the Greeks.  Here is Homer opening his epic, telling us of Achilles:

"Rage -- Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end."

Maybe he wasn't getting enough cholesterol in his diet, and his serotonin signaling was not fully functional, but either way he is violence incarnate, a conqueror and killer of men.  There is no stopping his rage, and he pays with his life in the end, but not before bringing death to countless lesser warriors.  There is another man who was present on the beaches of Troy, however, a man who survived that war and many other travails.  That is Odysseus. Homer describes him thus:

"Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home."

Here we have the man of twists and turns, that man skilled in all the ways of contending, who himself plotted the end of the Trojan war with his crafty Trojan horse, as even the fury of Achilles had not been enough to end the bloody war.  Here is a man of endurance, suffering great pains while also learning from other men and trying to be his brother's keeper.  While himself a great warrior, it was not rage that defined him, but his versatility, his ability to weather many storms, who finally does make it back to his wife, where his final battle is to outsmart his wife's suitors to win her back.  Here is a man whose dopamine system is running on full cylinders, who will contend however he needs to in order to survive, to endure, to save who he can and learn from those who can offer it.

So who cares about all this crap?  Well for one, I do.  The stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey, with their mythical heroes put in broad relief the fates that we have been given, and also the range of choice that those fates provide.  We've got brains with serotonin and dopamine coursing through them, causing all sorts of physiological shit.  And yet knowing that gives us a perspective, perhaps a broader range of choices than if we did not know.  So how will you channel your catecholamines?  Will you burn with the rage of Achilles?  Will you endure like Odysseus, contending in all those ways possible?  What will you do?  It's up to you.