A simian (ethological) glance at the Republican presidential race
[ by Charles Cameron — just one photo among many, or a defining display of power? ]
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My friend Tom Parsons made what I thought was an insightful comment on the photo above:
the serious hit was seeing the accompanying picture of Trump again showing simian dominance as the alpha male, and getting a submissive smile and pose from Jeb. That’s scary because I’m not finding online discussion of the simian dominance game that seems so clearly to me to be the foundation stone of Trump’s campaign.
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Tom’s not exactly right about there being no discussion of the Trump / Bush body language, as these two headlines [1, 2] show:
— but “wimp” is pretty mild pop-psych for “simian submission”, and Tom’s language emphasizes the biological roots of Trump’s apparent dominance.
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See what I mean?
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When you come down to it, ain’t biology everything?
There’s the height factor to consider, too. Hey, in Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury has one of his characters claim:
You just don’t go running a little short man like that against a tall man.
— and Abraham Lincoln stood tall at six foot four.
October 21st, 2015 at 10:48 am
Lincoln was a skilled wrestler and freakishly strong.
October 21st, 2015 at 4:17 pm
This was kind of embarrassing for Bush:
https://vine.co/v/eU5PIqgq2I1
October 21st, 2015 at 5:56 pm
I thought I’d drop Grurray’s image (as linked above) in here for easier access:
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