The Bestiary of American Politics

Medieval Bestiaries were fantastically popular and influential. They were so predominant that ripples from their impact still affect us today after roughly a thousand years. Bestiaries were based on the belief that morality could be divined by studying nature, particularly animal behavior. They offer a tantalizing contemporary design despite a past full of crucial impediments. The medieval versions are fraught with fabrications. Behavioral observations typically relied on lore, often tainted by the need to affirm some batty moral dictum of the era. Even worse, they produced inapt corollaries that often undermined the authors' professed sacred scripture. Rehabilitated by today's robust sciences, this bestiary illustrates intricate connections between physiology and behavior with the help of animals that have graciously exhibited their everyday escapades to explicitly expose our evolved nature. In this work, clear parallels arise between animal behaviors and modern political traits which are taken up one creature at a time. The root causes of our own political divisiveness emerge as we journey through biology and neuroscience following the lead of animals behaving (and misbehaving) naturally. This voyage not only guides us to many political solutions, but arms readers with a framework to devise their own solutions for restoring sanity to civilization.