Exhibit A for the defense:
Posted on 02/16/2009 11:22:26 AM PST by GOPGuide
snip
"There are some individuals who when confronted with extreme stress their hormone profile is rather unique," he said.
"It doesn't reach the same peak as the rest of us. So we're all ready to scream in our chairs, but there are certain individuals who just don't get as stressed.
"Their stress hormones are lower and the peptides that down-regulate that stress are higher, so you can see in action the hormonal regular system really hitting overdrive.
"Certain people are cooler under pressure and they perform very, very well during these periods of time."
Professor Aikins, who outlined his findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, studied hormone stress levels during extreme training exercises like mock survival or combat swimming.
He said that while there was no such thing as a "man without fear" certain people were better equipped to deal with it.
"I think they were born with it," he said. "We started figuring out we can start predicting who are these individuals who are going to have this cooler hormonal profile under high stress."
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
So Donovan McNabb was just born a choker?
Combat swimming??? What’s that?
“Certain people are cooler under pressure and they perform very, very well during these periods of time.”
I wonder if Marines test for this particular trait? ;^)
www.usawaterpolo.org
Your best heroes are ones that are trained into it.
Exhibit A for the defense:
If that were the case, then over the last 50 years we should have a TON of heros here. Abortions are gotten by people who are not willing to accept responsibility for their actions no matter how difficult, ie, not heroic.Without the heroic reproducing, there should only be those with heroic genes reproducing. How does this square?
Heros are made, not born.......
I call bogus. My husband is the calm type and while he would, could and has done heroic things, he doesn’t have the time to recognize the emergency until I’ve already handled the situation.
In most cases, he would have handled it better because he thinks first acts second while I act first and think later but sometimes time isn’t an option.
That should read without the NON heroic. I know, I know, read twice, post once. Mea Culpa
“He said that while there was no such thing as a “man without fear” certain people were better equipped to deal with it.”
Hal Jordan and Matt Murdock beg to differ.
“If that were the case, then over the last 50 years we should have a TON of heros here. Abortions are gotten by people who are not willing to accept responsibility for their actions no matter how difficult, ie, not heroic.Without the heroic reproducing, there should only be those with heroic genes reproducing. How does this square?”
I’ve not analyzed this, but my guess is that abortion affects TIMING rather than number of births. That is, I think your assumption that the non-heroic are not reproducing is wrong. Likewise, unless the “heroic” upped their reproductive rates to compensate for the loss of births among the non-heroic, the absolute number of heroes should simply rise with population (although they would constitute a larger % of whatever births occurred).
As with most nature-nurture stuff, I doubt it’s black and white in either direction. I don’t doubt there’s a genetic component, but if being cool under fire were culturally despised, my guess is that even the cool-headed types could be trained to act hysterical. So genetic propensities can be amplified or dissipated depending on how one’s family, friends or society in general react to that genetic predisposition etc. Society obviously can’t make a high IQ person dumb, but it certainly can send strong signals that inhibit high IQ individuals from either displaying or making use of their gifts. I would argue the same is true of “heroic” behavior.
Sure, there are people that react naturally to stress in a very mild manner. That’s not even necessarily an indication that they’re heroic; just lemmings.
Your best heroes are ones that are trained into it.
*************
Excellent, Mr. Wolf!
IMO, the article sounds like another masked elitist rationale for population “control”/genetic tinkering, etc.
“Few men are born brave. Many become so through training and force of discipline.”
- Flavius Vegetius
(From an earlier time, when men would stand fast and do their duty even without “professional help”.)
Personally I think a lot of folks who join the Marines preselect themselves because they have those traits and know it.
Well, let's see..it's been 57 years since boot camp.
But.... I seem to remember that you put 2 jarheads in a foxhole...throw in a grenade...and see who either grabs it and throws it out first... or who jumps on it first....{:-)
hell week at coronado.
Psychopaths have a deadened sense of fear but that doesn’t make them heroes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.