And despite the best efforts of the SJW's and the "Everyone gets dumbed down to a passive, lowest-common-denominator" attempts to erase all differences in humans and cultures... Things like racism, xenophobia, fear of other tribes, cultures, religions... are all deeply embedded into our DNA and our crocodile brains. It's a survival mechanism that allowed humans to organize and survive as a collective group.... but part of that survival mechanism was a distrust of the 'other.' Right back to Stanley Kubrick's apes... one species against another. One tribe against another, one skin color against another. That was not some construct of professors, that was what allowed humans to collectively gather, share and store information and begin to alter their environment(s) so that they could compete more successfully against things with better hearing, better eyesight, sharper claws, faster legs, bigger teeth, better sense of smell, etc. Our success, besides opposed thumbs, was an ability to categorize ourselves, organize ourselves and then compete as a team against a natural world that did its best for eons to kill off the species.
That said, as civilizations have grown and, in the past 200 years or so, communications and travel have gotten so much easier, it is likely that evolution will take another twist. Because 'modern' organizing principles in an economy where we are all connected (often electronically) suddenly the visual cues that offered protection for your 'group' are not as important. And in a tight-packed society, with no distance and space separating tribes, the survival mechanisms that evolved for a hundred thousand years or so... are less necessary. (though tell that to the Hutu's and the Tutsis sp?).
So try as the SJW's might with Sesame St. and Dora the explorer brainwashing from the earliest days... aimed only at one 'tribe' (those in the first world), they are pushing an uphill battle against some core hard-wiring in our brainstems.
But let me go all controversial here... because I'll argue that in modern, educated, erudite and polite society, there is no reason that the 'tribal' urges in our crocodile brains need to be acted upon. Nor do they need to go away. There is nothing wrong with nationalism, pride of heritage, pride of religion... even religious fundamentalism. Hey, if you want to stand on your head 8 hours a day and lie on a bed of nails and you're not hurting anyone.... no problem.
The issue is the one we keep bringing up every time there is a mass shooting, but are ignoring when it comes to things like terrorism and racial slayings and similar atrocities. That is mental health. Because there is nothing wrong with having your little reptile brain sending you signals saying that you should fear another tribe, dislike a religion that isn't yours or recite prayer under your breath all day long. But when you take those actions and choices that you have made WRT your lifestyle... and then pick up a gun and murder people in a church, drive a truck into a crowd or strap on a Semtex Tuxedo... well that is batshit crazy. And it is the crazy ones who are using things like race, religion, tribalism, nationalism to justify the acts that they already are driven to commit.
Go back 100 years and what did we do with these elements of society? We institutionalized them. In less 'cultured' countries, they were driven out of villages, stoned as witches or killed for small transgressions against their culture's social organizing principles. Today, we let them roam free and give them Internet connections... all the better for them to find a place to act out on their insanities.
Yet noone... and i mean noone... is trying to correlate folks who are on the various sociopathic indexes... with acts committed in the name of race, nationalism, etc. Why? Because the "Sesame St." brainwashing crowd thinks that 100,000 years of hard-wiring and evolution can be stamped out if you do what Big Bird tells you to do. Plus they're well-funded.
Well, off to teach a class. Back lecturing again! I knew I'd find something fun to do in retirement. I'll offer any student a grade bump if they write me a good paper proving Nixon was Framed. It's the only curve I grade on.
Oh and I am donning my Nomex now. I'll be interested to see how beat up I am by the end of the day.
Cheers,
Sirhr
P.S. What, not a single Scotsman joke above? I'm offended that I've been left out. What's the difference between Mick Jagger and a Scottish Shephard? One says Hey You, Get offa my Cloud. The other says Hey McCloud, get offa my ewe... Just 'sayin.
