kengr: (Default)
kengr ([personal profile] kengr) wrote2011-05-27 12:49 pm

societal tolerance

Interesting article about what may predispose societies to being "controlling". Stuff like wars and natural disasters.

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/05/27/3225700.htm

It occurs to me to wonder if this explains the "Bible Belt" in the US as it pretty much covers tTornado Alley & the places that get regularly hit by hurricanes.

[identity profile] scott-sanford.livejournal.com 2011-05-29 06:28 am (UTC)(link)
Interesting indeed.

I wouldn't call the West Coast all that disaster-proof, since it's all an earthquake zone, and Portland certainly gets the occasional flood or storm. However, other factors mentioned in the article are definitely us, such as having a low population density and almost no danger of wars. (Southern California's eternal water shortage is more of an ongoing nuisance than anything which actually kills people.) We grow quite a lot of food relative to our population as well.