Henry R. Hermann

Traits of Dominant Animals

This chapter emphasizes various mechanisms that demonstrate the complex nature of dominance. It points out that alpha individuals vary, and that their dominance may be expressed to control as well as tolerate subordinates or completely control subordinates in a despotic fashion. This chapter elaborates on relationships between members of social groups, pointing out that animals aggregate for a wide variety of reasons. Yet, aggregations and expressions of dominance and aggression are best defined in social species.

Chapter 18 – The Nature of Things

It is clear that humans have inherited the genetics of a long line of predecessor animals and express themselves accordingly. Comparisons with numerous other animals reveal our animalistic nature. And yet, humans have evolved to a point of possessing a brain that has taken most of them far from their initial animalistic world to an ultramodern state of existence. Many of the circumstances that plagued them as animals have all but been eliminated in many places in the world, at least for the time being. But while they continue to function animalistically toward many environmental pressures, there are new problems, problems that bring new types of stress (distress) to them and the world around them. A look at their dominant and aggressive nature, in terms of their genetics, chemistry, widely divergent alternate approaches to a moral, amoral, or immoral life, brain chemistry, reaction to variations in nutrition, everyday interactions with other conspecific individuals, religion, politics, and warfare, reveals that humans are indeed animals of extreme complexity and capable of expressing themselves in widely divergent ways. A large and complex brain, accompanying technological skills, and complex interactions with one another have allowed humans to build a civilization so complex, demanding, and sometimes threatening that it may be difficult to maintain intraspecific and interspecific homeostasis in both the biotic and abiotic world. Some investigators strongly feel that our chances for rectifying the harm that has been done to the planet are very slim. Even if we could learn to cure our environmental ills, with the population at an all-time high, we may wonder where and how the human population will live if it is ever faced with catastrophic planetary events. Numerous underground retreats are discussed, some of which can house numerous people for an extended period of time, but many of them will be inhabited by a select part of the human population. There are steps we can take toward halting population growth and even decreasing it, but it must be implemented with some degree of responsibility on behalf of world citizens. If all of the strategies were to be put into effect, global populations would most likely peak and subsequently undergo a gradual decline, resulting in a more sustainable Earth. But that is the rub: people must take overpopulation and its negative impact on Earth seriously before we can see promising results. And while citizens may be convinced, politicians must be made aware as well, and implementation may be negatively influenced by religious and cultural beliefs. What has been said in each chapter is based on what science and the extraordinary people who have carried out the investigations feel is the truth. Antiscience sentiments issue from a variety of people and organized groups. In spite of the numerous scientific accomplishments of the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries, general philosophical expressions against scientific studies have stemmed from both ancient and contemporary individuals. Due to the collaborative work of thousands upon thousands of scientists throughout the world, we have answers to many of the questions that have been asked through the ages, especially since the middle and late 1800s. An enormous range of scientific literature has been and continues to be published. Scientific journals communicate and document the results of research carried out in colleges, universities, and various other research institutions, serving as an archival record of science. Many additional magazines are written in a more popular style which bring scientific information to the general public. While we may recognize our importance as individuals to humankind, to ourselves, and to those we love and care about, our presence and status on Earth is biologically nothing more than a stage of evolution, caught in a span of time (a Goldilocks moment) that seems (in our mere lifetimes) to be undergoing little change. Yet, over greater spans of time, as with all living organisms, we have undergone enormous change and will continue to change or become extinct, and we will never escape from our biological roots because we remain as biological entities. In the end, no matter how we take care of our species, our planet, and our Earth-bound coinhabitants and how we adjust to changing conditions, it will be natural selection that will determine our ultimate fate.

The Chemical, Physical, and Genetic Nature of Dominance

Due to its complexity, understanding expressions of dominance and aggression in humans is quite difficult. It is obvious that the human population has tremendous behavioral, physiological, and anatomical variability, and each individual acts differently to situations. In addition, contemporary society is complex and stressful. Therefore, to understand aggression, it must be approached from a variety of different perspectives, taking into account an individuals genetics, learning in the formative years and all of the bodys systems that may affect rising levels of aggression.

Chapter 9 – Alternate Human Behavior

Dominance interactions are found in all walks of life and at all levels of human existence. They may be powerful expressions that influence society in a positive or negative fashion (e.g., a political leader who genuinely cares about his or her constituents, versus a political psychopath who does as he or she pleases, sometimes destroying the lives of those who get in the way). On the other hand, they may be less-significant expressions; for example, simply winning at a competitive sport or game of cards. People who have an antisocial personality typically express their form of dominance in a more aggressive, sometimes violent fashion. The development of a sedentary lifestyle in humans led to the formation of larger groups and increased interrelationships, including individuals who were extra-familial. Most urban and suburban human societies continue in this fashion, while aboriginal societies either live in multifamily groups or have retained the earlier family-oriented groupings. Our predecessors learned that living in a large group was a more effective way of meeting material and spiritual needs, and it functioned as a better system of defense against threats. Unfortunately, opposing groups became larger as well, and their differences often led to altercations and mass killings. Existing in groups comes with certain responsibilities. Rules must be made (generally based on religious, moral, and political beliefs), and members of such a group are expected to become familiar with and practice behaviors that depict a social “norm.” While social norms vary, depending on the society to which an individual belongs, some members of a society are willing to abide by social rules while others are not. Those who do abide by the rules are considered part of the “norm,” while those who do not are said to express alternate behavior. Thus, human society is composed of a tremendous variety of individuals at both extremes and others who fit somewhere in between. They occupy different behavioral categories and different rungs within the linear and despotic dominance hierarchies that exist. It is often dominant individuals who influence the making of societal rules, and it is often dominant individuals who break them. In choosing rule-making leaders, we desire individuals who are morally selfless and possibly sometimes even altruistic. While this may happen on occasion, many individuals who make the rules have more materialistic or sadistic reasons for domination. Such individuals are accustomed to using deceit to influence their followers, and their deceitful mannerisms are often difficult to recognize. In rule making, dominant individuals (especially those who have an antisocial personality) often make rules that are not self-demanding and are often directly beneficial for the rule maker. Thus, it is a selfish attitude. In rule breaking, dominant individuals generally demonstrate an even more selfish approach as well. This chapter is about those people, people with personalities who desire to dominate others by aberrant means and do not care about what the consequences of their behavior are to others. In the minds of most of society, they are the social outcasts, bullies, burglars, corporate and identity thieves, abusers, murderers, and rapists that every society must contend with. Many people who demonstrate behaviors other than the “norm” do not precisely fit descriptions of antisocial personalities, and there are no definite lines of demarcation separating one group from another. Rather, there is a gradation of personalities from one end of the scale to the other, a bell curve of personalities, if you will. While many people are perfectly comfortable in following societal rules, some people choose to isolate themselves from society by not becoming involved, separating themselves from other individuals and societal functions. They practice what has been described as an asocial way of life. Types of sociopaths, mental illness, personality disorders, psychopathic behavior, antisocial personality disorders, love, respect, falling out of love, stalking, tolerance, adultery, hatred, hate groups, and other forms of alternate behavior complete the chapter.

Chapter 11 – Dominance and Aggression in the Workplace

Dominance interactions and aggression are commonly found expressed between individuals in the workplace. How one goes about dealing with this often hinges on the personality of individuals in high positions, those climbing the corporate ladder, and those doing their job without aspirations for climbing the ladder. The relationships between individuals can often be determined through logical approaches, but they become complex when asocial and antisocial behaviors play a role in how people dominate their subordinates and how subordinates react to the way they are treated. In order to accomplish their work and arrive at their desired position in the working world, most individuals may logically assume that doing their job properly and paying attention to rules and regulations will pave the way to their success. Under ideal circumstances, this may be true. However, given the complex personalities of people in general and the complications that can arise from them, agonistic behavior is often expressed in all phases of the working world and for many reasons, and it is not uncommon for an individual to experience conflicts that result in disharmony. There are certain personalities in the working world, just as there are in the nonworking world, which parasitize coworkers and the system to which they belong. As we have seen, discrepancies in human behavior may have many sources, making human expressions the complex result of almost unlimited malfunctions. Bullies are commonly encountered, and it is not only in the workplace that these individuals are found. Evidence indicates that serial bullies express themselves in the workplace, in the community, and at home. Toxic leaders (often referred to as boardroom hitlers, little hitlers, managers from hell, or bosses from hell) are bullies who have responsibility over a group of people or an organization and abuse the leader/follower relationship by leaving the group or organization in a worse-off condition than when they first found them. The volitional account of moral failures in leaders does not provide a complete account of this phenomenon. The reason leaders behave unethically may be because they willingly behave in ways that they know to be wrong. Price, however, suggests that leaders can know that a certain kind of behavior is generally required by morality but are mistaken as to whether the relevant moral requirement applies to them in a particular situation and whether others are protected by this requirement. He demonstrates how leaders make exceptions of themselves, explains how the justificatory force of leadership gives rise to such exception-making, and develops normative protocols that leaders should adopt. Toxic managers have been described as the managers who bully, threaten, and yell: those whose mood swings determine the climate of the office on any given workday and who force employees to whisper in sympathy in cubicles and hallways about the backbiting, belittling boss from hell. The reader should recognize that these characteristic features of a bully and toxic leader are the same characteristics that personify many dominant (often psychopathic) individuals in all sorts of human activities, including those mentioned in the following chapters. No human activity is without them.

Chapter 7 – Similarities Between Humans and Other Living Organisms

At times, depending on the personality and abilities of its group members, dominance and aggression in humans (as in other animals) function in establishing and maintaining population and environmental homeostasis. At other times, when dominant and aggressive behaviors extend beyond the boundaries of tolerance and morality, they create population and environmental instability or disorder, entropy if you will. When population and environmental instability reach a point at which the existence of all life forms and the Earth itself are threatened, as they often have become under human domination, it is time to step back and critically examine the causes of such instability and contemplate making a change in the system that has resulted in the dilemma. To do this, the human animals attributes and influence on the world must be scrutinized from many different perspectives. We find that compensating for maladjusted approaches to living in a modern world is an ongoing event for the human species. When we approach problematic situations, we analyze them and sometimes attempt to correct them to bring them back to homeostasis. However, we often are reluctant to correct them until they become a serious threat to humanity, the environment, and the world. To understand the true nature of a human approach to life and the games they play, it is up to the reader to consider the scientific implications and evaluate the human condition. It is also the readers responsibility to have an open mind and be honest about how they interpret the literature. Fossils and radiometric dating have been important for estimating relatedness and understanding populations and lineages of organisms that existed in earlier geological history. In addition to anatomical studies of groups of animals that show homologous structural features, vestigial structures, and embryological development, comparisons in contemporary species offer contributing factors toward an understanding of common descent. Universal biochemical organization and molecular variance patterns in all organisms also show a direct correlation with common descent. Population, biogeography, basic biological fundamentals and their origins and development, and significance of the brain are discussed. Finally, a brief mention is made about “animal becomes human.” The remainder of the chapters is devoted to the anatomy and behavior of humans.

Chapter 8 – Human Nature

As we would expect from a highly evolved, very cognizant animal in an extremely stressful contemporary environment, human behavior is quite complex, its expressions differing widely in individuals with different personality traits and different stresses. This chapter focuses on the basic features of anatomy and behavior as it relates to humans and other animals and elaborates on certain expressions of human nature. Concepts discussed here prepare the reader for Chapter 9 on alternate human behavior. While the mind of humans is capable of retrospective and predictive thinking and has been a driving force in the development of extraordinary technological achievements in the contemporary world, it appears that rising signs of intelligence have been accompanied by both the retention of old survival traits and a vast array of new anatomical, behavioral, and emotional changes. All such traits combined define the nature of the dominant contemporary human. To understand the human animal, a brief taxonomical sketch is provided, followed by an explanation of the rise of advanced hominines, including the hardships they faced, as well as the anatomical and behavioral similarities and differences, as compared to other mammals. Some of the predecessor traits that humans have carried along with them as they developed through the throws of human evolution are as follows: Humans have retained an animalistic propensity for living up to their biotic potential. As with other organisms, this is and always has been a survival strategy against food deprivation, predation, and parasitism. Under natural conditions, animals that overproduce have their population reduced by inadequate food supplies, parasitism, and predation. Since food supplies have been adequate (primarily in industrialized countries) for many members of a thriving human population, contemporary humans do not have predators to keep their population in check (other than themselves), and parasites have been eliminated or severely cut back in many parts of the developed world, the human population is increasing almost at an exponential rate and growing to a dangerous level. Actually, there are many signs indicating that we have long surpassed the environmental (ecological) carrying capacity. Further, we are stretching the limits of our food production by creating new, larger, and more abundant supplies of seeds, fruits, and vegetables, using pesticides and genetically modified approaches to keep insects from feeding on our food plants, taking increasing amounts of forest for developing pastures and feeding most of our water and grain to grow food animals, using fossil fuels to make plant fertilizers, and paying little attention to decreasing our populations. And while we are in the process of engulfing genetically designed foods, we are putting ourselves in an extremely vulnerable position, since we are not aware of what these foods are doing to us. Like other social creatures, humans have retained a propensity for developing agonistic behaviors and dominance hierarchies that affect every part of human life. Also, as with other social species, such hierarchies tend to give structure to human society, facilitating the development of a societal division of labor. At the same time, they contribute to a waning tolerance and intrahuman conflict, for example, aggression and wartime behavior, at many levels of human society. Paradoxically, humans, like other social animals, express territorial behavior, another survival strategy that provides dominant individuals and populations with adequate food, mates, status, and protection from predators and conspecific intruders. However, territoriality, combined with an enlarged brain, a dominant status, technological skills, a noncaring attitude toward our cohabitants, and an overpopulated world is resulting in an imbalance in species diversity and increased tension among different groups of humans. To avoid conflict within their various subpopulations, humans have established a system of world trade, a social mechanism that helps distribute resources to individuals who are unable to provide such resources for themselves and those at the edge of human existence. Humans and other social animals often express altruistic behavior in terms of relatedness. Thus, as with other animals, humans are usually more altruistic toward related individuals and the groups they belong to than toward individuals and groups they do not know or belong to. Humans and other social creatures share a reciprocally altruistic nature, allowing them to engage in social endeavors that provide the most abundant advantages to more than one party. This has become especially important in business and politics where individuals or companies can benefit one another, and it is best demonstrated in humans because of their cognizant brain and ability to contemplate such actions. Selfishness is a behavior that has been absolutely necessary for survival throughout the four billion years of evolution for all organisms. Strangely, selfishness and an extremely dominant attitude seem to counter acts of altruism and reciprocity. However, all of these behaviors can be selfish in certain respects. Altruism and reciprocity, for instance, are ways for a species or an individual to acquire the most for its colony and species. And since they are directed more toward close relatives, they benefit their own family unit and species but possibly ignore or destroy the benefits of other groups or species. Deception, another selfish survival strategy, provides the needs of individuals who require them. There are many examples of deceit in all animal populations, and they are used for many reasons. Deception appears to be especially valuable in the trials of life and conflict. Toleration is a behavior that tends to detoxify overly expressed dominance in social groups of animals. As with expressions of dominance, toleration varies considerably within a population of social animals, including humans. Unfortunately, toleration is a behavioral expression that is often lacking in human society unless it benefits the person or group that expresses it.

Chapter 4 – Social Nonprimate Animals

Animals are widely divergent in their behavioral expressions. Some are social while others have a nonsocial nature. Expressions of behavior have developed in each species as a matter of survival and reproduction. We assume that whatever behavior they demonstrate is the one that suits their needs to obtain these objectives. Many animals express an aggregative tendency for one reason or another, but aggregations may or may not have a social quality. Once we understand that animals which aggregate and experience agonistic encounters with other members of their group and with which dominance establishment is best demonstrated in social animals, it is logical to inquire about which species exhibit social behavior. Sociality exists at many levels in the kingdom Animalia, from barely social to eusocial. Sociality has arisen independently in many organisms, and the degree of sociality possessed by a species depends on where in the natural selection process the species exists. Invertebrates and vertebrates have both evolved variable degrees of sociality, the most fundamental characteristics being parental investment, cooperativeness, and competition among colony members and group defense. After deliberating on the rise of sociality, each major group of organisms that shows social qualities is discussed, pointing out that the social nature of animal aggregations is looked upon differently, depending on the group being examined and the views of the examiner. Yet, their behaviors are quite similar. Certain animals have risen to the highest level of sociality: eusociality, characterized by demonstrating: (1) care of the young, (2) reproductive division of labor, and (3) an overlap of generations. Most social species never reach a eusocial status. Invertebrates that demonstrate some degree of sociality are arachnids, insects, and mollusks. Of these, only the insects have a clearly defined eusocial nature. Eusocial insect species are found in the following groups: ants, honeybees, bumblebees, paper wasps, and termites. Vertebrates discussed are fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, the latter group including coati mundis, dogs, wolves, lions, elephants, cetaceans, and mole rats. Of these, only the mole rats have risen to a eusocial status. While humans are complex social animals, they do not quite express a eusocial nature to the degree that is shown in certain insects and mole rats. While only distantly related, certain polistine wasps and mole rats express remarkably similar eusocial behavior and physiological changes while establishing a dominance hierarchy. Agonistic confrontations between members of their colonies result in a despotic dominance hierarchy, which causes physiological differences in subordinates. Their behavior is compared with the behavior of other social species, including humans.

Chapter 17 – Attempts to Save the Natural World

All news about our relationship with planet Earth is not bad. This chapter discusses a number of attempts by humans to solve many of the problems for our growing demands. Many attempts are being made by individuals and special groups to minimize the use of resources, levels of pollution, and other environmental problems. Also, certain members of our population are seriously considering the importance of other living organisms and their needs, pointing out that there are definite positive attributes in some humans that are associated with our dominant nature. In addition, population increase has slowed somewhat. But the question arises: are we doing enough, and is it too late? What is unfortunate is that as the world becomes more complex, many humans grow further apart from the system that produced all life forms, including other members of the species to which they belong. Instead of living a mutualistic or even a commensalistic existence with our fellow organisms and planet Earth, we as a species appear to be more parasitic in our ways. Instead of contributing to world homeostasis or going to the roots of our problems, we find ourselves constantly attempting to compensate for our overwhelming misconduct. If it were not for the heroic efforts of certain people to save the natural world, we may have succumbed to a dismal existence and deteriorating Earth long ago. Impressive as these organizations and the people who belong to them are, they are not nearly enough for the preservation of natural areas and survival of Earths species as long as our populations remain large. Because we are such powerful, aggressive, and dominant animals, people from all walks of life and from every country must learn to care about what happens to our biotic and abiotic world. Biologists have been saying this for years, and a number of important books have issued warnings about what can happen if we ignore environmental abuse and the delicate nature of Earth. Yet, large numbers of people (many of whom are not knowledgeable about environmental issues or the organisms that live in nature) are not interested in wildlife or the environment. Even with the educational opportunities available to learn about wilderness areas and the wildlife that inhabits them (including incredible wildlife movies on the Discovery channel), there often is a lack of concern by humans for the preservation of nature and natural resources. The human animal is very unusual and complex indeed. In spite of the good, sometimes altruistic acts that many humans and their organizations perform, other humans use their selfish, sometimes antisocial attributes to gain personal benefits, often at the expense of shattering homeostatic environmental systems and human lives. That is part of who we are as a species. Earlier chapters have brought out detailed accounts of other human attributes.

Chapter 15 – Killing Humans

Acts of cruelty to animals are symptomatic of a deep mental disturbance. Research in psychology and criminology shows that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals do not stop there—many of them move on to their fellow humans. Murderers often start out by killing and torturing animals as kids. A survey of psychiatric patients who had repeatedly tortured dogs and cats when they were young found that all of them had high levels of aggression toward people as well. According to a New South Wales newspaper, a police study in Australia revealed that 100% of sexual homicide offenders examined had a history of animal cruelty. To researchers, a fascination with cruelty to animals is a red flag in the backgrounds of serial killers and rapists. These are the kids who never learned it is wrong to poke out a puppys eyes. Because abusers target individuals who are less dominant than themselves, crimes against animals, spouses, children, and the elderly often go hand in hand. Children who are animal abusers may be repeating lessons that they learned or practiced at home; often abused themselves, they subsequently react to anger or frustration with violence. Their violence is often directed at animals because they are the only individuals in the family who are more vulnerable than themselves. There are definite connections between animal abuse, domestic violence, and child abuse. Animal control officers and spousal/child abuse investigators are often required to share information when animal abuse or domestic abuse is found in a home. Cross-reporting requirements have helped foster early intervention. Humans, like certain other primates, often go beyond the boundary of simple forms of hunting, even beyond the killing of pets, and kill other humans for one reason or another. Some humans even appear to enjoy or, for some reason, require the process of killing members of their own species. The killing of offspring by conspecific adult feral animals is routine. Male lions, for instance, are well-known participants in infanticide, eliminating offspring that were produced by other males. A wide assortment of species from microscopic rotifers and insects to fish, amphibians, birds, and mammals (including certain nonhuman primates) do it as well. There may be other reasons for eliminating offspring. Besides maximizing ones own fitness by eliminating the genes of former dominants, it may sometimes be a part of natural selection to cull runts and young with anatomical abnormalities in order to maximize the survivability of the strongest offspring. In certain cases, it may even be a common practice to feed upon the young. Infanticide is not restricted to nonhumans. It, in fact, has been quite common in human populations around the world at earlier times, and it is found in contemporary populations as well, although to a lesser degree. Infant cannibalism is even found on occasion. Reasons for human cannibalism, including the eating of infants, have been (1) sanctioned by a cultural norm (e.g., in endocannibalism and exocannibalism by certain cultures); (2) necessity in extreme situations of famine; and (3) mental illness, insanity, or social deviancy. Abortion is one of the most common medical procedures performed in the United States each year. More than 40% of all women will end a pregnancy by abortion at some time in their reproductive lives. While women of every social class seek terminations, the typical woman who ends her pregnancy is either young, white, unmarried, poor, or over the age of 40. In the United States and worldwide, abortion (known also as elective termination of pregnancy) remains common. It is the killing of adults that appears to be relatively rare among nonhuman animals. Even in expressions of agonistic behavior in which two individuals are vying for the alpha position, death is unusual unless both possess alpha qualities. So why do animals kill infants more readily than adults? Researchers on the topic state that it is simply because “infants are easier to kill.” While this may be true, there may be underlying reasons for infanticide, as mentioned earlier ( Hausfater and Hrdy, 1984). While there seem to be reasons for the killing of humans and warfare, the nature of killing lies in the human mind, and the desire to kill varies tremendously among people. Often, these variations are expressions of personality differences. Family violence and abuse are among the most prevalent forms of interpersonal violence that are carried out against women and children (both young boys and girls; Widom and Maxfield, 2001). As stated by the US Department of Justice, the sexual abuse of a child should never be considered “just a family matter.” It is not only a crime against an individual, but an individual who is an innocent victim, and who has little defense against the instigator. “The FBI estimates that 72 of every 100,000 females in the United States were raped in that year. About 28% of victims were raped by husbands or boyfriends, 35% by acquaintances, and 5% by other relatives. A 2010 report shows that rape cases were lower in that year than in several of the previous years, 27.3 rapes occurring per 100,000 citizens,” and the number of cases appear to continue declining over the years. Also covered in this chapter is ethnic cleansing, genocide, murderers, serial killers, honor killings, the attractive nature of violence, gangs and hatred, warfare, and the origin of aggressive behavior in humans. It is doubtful that isolated groups of people ever got along. They had to compete with one another for territorial rights and the resources that would keep them alive, lacking trust in any other hominine forms or in conspecific members of groups other than their own. In the process, they sometimes entered altercations and killed one another for a variety of what appeared to be legitimate reasons. As the groups got larger, skirmishes turned to war, and more people were killed in the process. Our governments and news agencies never reveal the true nature of war by humans. Men and women who fight these wars often are not aware of what the war is all about. Many fight these wars out of sheer patriotism, and many of them die in the process or suffer the loss of limbs and a chance to ever lead a life they could have had if they had not partaken in battle, and our dominant leaders know this. And for their sacrifice, do they get rewarded? No, they do not. When they return home, they are expected to carry on just as they had done before suffering great emotional and physical trauma. In being one of these people who devote their life to patriotism or talking with them (if they care to talk at all about it), we come to understand something about the true atrocities of war. The glorification of war, as seen in our movies and on television, is a case of major deception. Many humans may possibly consider refraining from war if the truth was revealed. In The Most Dangerous Animal (a book that I sincerely believe everyone should read), D.L. Smith (2007) briefly describes the naked truth behind war. “War is mangled bodies and shattered minds. It is the stomach-churning reek of decaying corpses, of burning flesh and feces. It is rape, disease and displacement. It is terrible beyond comprehension, but,” he says, “it is not senseless. Wars are purposeful. They are fought for resources, lebensraum, oil, gold, food and water or peculiarly abstract and imaginary goods like God, honor, race, democracy and destiny.”