Sunday, October 09, 2022

Correctly Framing Queen Elizabeth’s Excellent If Partial Development Model #2

Posted by Peter Quennell


Queen’s Three Not-So-Secret Weapons

Did the Queen save her best act for last?

Some four billion are said to have watched her final events, at least in part. It seems a fair bet that the personal situations of a big majority of them had been enhanced by her activist presence over the years.

The Queen used in particular three development skills, weapons or techniques, all hiding in plain sight.

1. On a daily basis the Queen drew popular attention to good systems - she was surely nose-to-nose with more systems than anyone who has ever lived, and she made a beeline for all of the best, and put the spotlight on them and their originators and development teams.

Democratic and/or administrative & legal and/or scientific systems of UK origin are in play in every country in the world, and via the dazzling funeral planning she had guided in part she showed just how good the Brits still can be.

2. The Queen was remorselessly nice. She exuded kindness. At the Westminster Abbey service, the various bishops gave christian values a strong pat on the back, as if that was it, as if it all began there.

But kindness as a vital ingredient of homo sapiens’ sustained development success, over a dozen other flavors of humans, has just now been proven to go back hundreds of thousands of years.

1. There are more human species than we ever imagined

Species such as Homo Longi have only been identified as recently as 2018. There are now 21 known species of human.

In the last few years we have realised that our Homo sapiens ancestors may have met as many as eight of these different types of human, from robust and stocky species including Neanderthals and their close relatives Denisovans, to the short (less than 5ft tall) and small-brained humans such as Homo naledi.

But Homo sapiens weren’t the inevitable evolutionary destination. Nor do they fit into any simple linear progression or ladder of progress. Homo naledi‘s brain may have been smaller than that of a chimpanzee but there is evidence they were culturally complex and mourned their dead.

Neanderthals created symbolic art but they weren’t the same as us. Neanderthals had many different biological adaptations, which may have included hibernation.

***

5. Kindness is an evolutionary advantage

Research has uncovered new reasons to feel hopeful about future human societies. Scientists used to believe the violent parts of human nature gave us a leg up the evolution ladder.

But evidence has emerged of the caring side of human nature and its contribution to our success. Ancient skeletons show remarkable signs of survival from illness and injuries, which would have been difficult if not impossible without help.

The trail of human compassion extends back one and a half million years ago. Scientist have traced medical knowledge to at least the time of the Neanderthals.

Altruism has many important survival benefits. It enabled older community members to pass on important knowledge. And medical care kept skilled hunters alive.

3. Process skills. It surely mattered that Elizabeth was a woman. In a key respect, they have the edge. Women are now well proven to be more skilled and successful than men in process management, in being inclusive, building bridges, getting results from teams. Bottom-up. Leading from behind.

All in all, a dazzling show, though not yet widely understood. Did her elected governments in the UK learn anything? Seemingly, no. Not yet.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 10/09/22 at 08:04 AM in

Comments

Ultimate playoff of four British women? The corrosive Margaret Thatcher and Liz Truss, versus the hyper-constructive Penny Mordaunt and Queen?

More on Liz Truss’s seriously bizarre model next - one tried only three times, and only here in the US. Each time it absolutely and totally failed and did real harm.

And now like a zombie it resurfaces in the UK?!

Posted by Peter Quennell on 10/09/22 at 09:13 AM | #

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