Saint in Public, Rascal in the Sack

The attraction to the bad boy???

It could be a function of genetics and hundreds of thousands of years of evolution...wealth and the accumulation of wealth have only been a factor in the human mating ritual for a couple odd thousand years. The advent of structured, civilized society has changed the game. It is entirely possible that, prior to the introduction of recent societal structure, the bad boy posed a more logical choice and risk taking behavior equated to a more developed ability to adapt in a world without universal systems for governing individual safety and survival. Modern society has changed the focus, but not the basic instincts. The self focused, aggressive, quasi antisocial traits inherent to bad boys bring them into conflict with imposed structure, while the altruistic, self effacing, deference based traits inherent to good boys are more suited to a rigid format and cooperation with peers.

Society has evolved rapidly with the introduction of technology, especially in the last three hundred years. Genetic predisposition and instinct that have evolved to effectively safeguard the existence of the human race for hundreds of thousands of years may be lagging behind a bit. (Give it time, society is cyclical….zombie apocalypse may be around the very next corner and render this discussion mute in more chaotic situations.)

I think this dual, asynchronous evolution has presented us with a dissonant set of needs/desires; the resolution of which sounds like”Play with the bad boy, marry the good boy.” Seems, to me, like a very natural adaptation to changing environmental factors in the face of inherent instinctual drives...

We may be in a transition here. Maybe we will eventually catch up with ourselves.