Politics = Religion = Sports

We all know how much men feel about team sports, yet how many people see a connection between team sports and religion and politics? A pattern that I have noticed in the world is a phenomenon I call the "team thought pattern." Team thought patterns can be seen in the conflicts that most of us take for granted in the world today.

Muslim vs. Christian/Jewish
Republican vs. Democrat
Male vs. Female

Most just seem to accept these conflicts as the way things are, without looking deeper at what might cause people to have such social divisions. Me, I see these sort of conflicts as a manifestation of testosterone based hormonal qualities, since I don't really see women as the creators of such cultural properties. Historically, I don't see much evidence of women creating political parties, sports teams, and religions. Women have other drives.

I think it is safe to say that most religions are created by men. I think it is safe to say that most partisan political parties are created by men. The walls between men and women — the "us vs. them" way that many men view the relationships between themselves and women, seem to me to also fall under a partisan and competitive view that seems to be more about competition and exclusion than connection.

Let's look at something that might be relevant to understanding such behavior.

I believe that hormones are very similar to "operating systems" — that is, I believe that from the start of human development, hormones programmed us as people to behave in distinct ways.

Testosterone, to me, seems to (realistically) have programmed men to fuck as many women as possible, no matter how undeveloped and primitive they may be at any time in historical time. No matter how stupid or undeveloped the human male is, he is programmed by hormones to try to fuck as many women as he can. To do this, I believe that testosterone also programs men to not connect emotionally with women... or other men, who he must compete with. I mean, if a man connects to females emotionally, he is going to perhaps stop fucking many women, and that is not what reproduction demands from men — to reproduce, men must be so driven to fuck that they HAVE to fuck — alot. Affairs that happen outside a marriage seem to be a part of male behavior that is so common, it probably should be seen as a result of this sort of hormonal programming more than any real choice on the male part.

I think that testosterone based behavior (in general of course) is really very much responsible for the partisan constructions we see in society everywhere. I really don't see that particular kind of thought pattern in women... and I think that is because the hormone estrogen is responsible for insuring that no matter how stupid or primitive a woman is (and I mean DUMB... fucking DUMB), she is compelled to nurture and take care of others, and in both testosterone and estrogen's cases, I truly mean individuals are profoundly COMPELLED.

The problem with testosterone based partisan/team thought processes, is that they become very distracting and more important than actual cultural realities/issues. Sometimes, when I read political stories in the newspaper, it's impossible for me to ignore the way that it sounds so similar to sports commentary. One party gains the advantage, one party loses something, so and so is winning, so and so suffers a defeat. It doesn't HAVE to be that way, that is only the way men have constructed relationships based on their hormonal realities.

Religious commentary seems less like sports talk superficially, but maybe that is only because the terminology veers into more of a spiritual realm, where the similarities may be less evident — and more psychologically powerful for both sexes. Nevertheless, there is a real team like passion and flavor to many religious conflicts... Also, the overwhelming male bias in most religions, and all the major religions where today we see such huge conflicts, is so clear and defined... as defined as that found in the sports player/cheerleader system. Noone can really fail to see the historically evident male bias in political thought and systems either.

I'm tired of this bullshit. Everyone just seems to accept these team thought patterns (like a religion almost) as how everyone thinks and how everyone does things... and how things will always be... and it isn't. It's how men do things, subconsciously perhaps, but it's time to really think about how this kind of pattern holds people back. It's really not about connecting, it's about strategies, about winning... time is spent addressing how to win instead of what to do better for everyone.

This partisan, competitive, exclusionary patterning is not the only alternative — but you wouldn't guess that the way the world is now. It's so pervasive and ingrained in cultures that it's hard for me to see an alternative myself, but I bet there is one, or many.