Curious to know the author’s take on issues like antisemitism which occurs in every epoch with various forms of persecution of Jewish people - is it a repeating pattern or something else? What changes in our evolution would need to occur for it to stop being a common historical phenomenon (besides the obvious total annihilation of Jews)? Are humans the only species that deliberately and systematically destroys other competing members of its species?
It’s called perpetual jealousy caused by an internal inadequacy and insecurity. Like an animal, these antisemites attack when they are afraid. Afraid of failure. Afraid of being outclassed and outranked by the more successful people. They do the same to some clever Chinese too, but they cannot discriminate, what, a billion of them?
We evolved in a prehistoric past where we had threats from other species and threats from other humans competing for food, etc. Those humans who carried genes that tended to divide the world into us vs. them groups were more likely to survive and pass those genes on to their progeny, etc. We still have those genes even though we no longer live in a Stone Age environment. We are not genetically predisposed to hate any particular group but we can be culturally “educated” to falsely believe that some human groups are more dangerous than others and need to be eliminated. Hitler was an example of promoting this type of behavior.
Chimpanzees, our closest primate relatives, also tend to divide the world into us vs. them families that compete for land to live on. This was noted by primatologist Jane Goodall. Chimpanzees don’t have the communication skills we do and we often useourv skills to communicate misleading information. We see examples of this everyday in the reporting on what politicians of different parties say about various issues. So it goes.
"We are not genetically predisposed to hate any particular group but we can be culturally “educated” to falsely believe that some human groups are more dangerous than others and need to be eliminated."
Falsely?
Well yes, we can be "educated" to falsely believe that some groups are more dangerous than actually are, and I agree that was the case with Hitler and the Jews.
We can also be "educated" to falsely believe (and pressured to pretend to believe by social conformity and threat of retaliation, social rejection, loss of livelihood, harassment, legal persecution, etc., just as other heresies were suppressed in earlier times), despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that no groups are more dangerous than others, and that all groups are identical on average in intellectual capacity, or in their ability to build and sustain advanced technological civilizations etc.
At this point it's not at all clear to me that the former is more dangerous than the latter. On the contrary, I think the latter is far more of a danger for certain groups in particular and therefore the future of civilization as a whole.
For example, it is now widely known even and admitted even by the British media, which covered it up and viciously slandered anyone who attempted to talk about it, that at least 10s of thousands of white British schoolgirls have been gang raped and sexually tortured by Pakistani gangs. And that when girls went to the police they were often called prostitutes, and sent back to their rapists, or arrested. And it had been going for over a decade.
This is on the scale of a wartime atrocity, and it happened in (ostensibly) peacetime, with the tacit support of the government against its own people. By invaders, invited and protected by the government, who consciously, deliberately target British white girls, and believe they justified in doing so by the rules of war according to their religion.
Inter-group conflict, sadly, is not a thing of the distant past, and the psychology that evolved for it may still be necessary for survival, like it or not. The misguided attempt to suppress it us while pretending to not see it in them, I think, is creating a world with more, not less inter-ethnic conflict and violence.
Curious to know the author’s take on issues like antisemitism which occurs in every epoch with various forms of persecution of Jewish people - is it a repeating pattern or something else? What changes in our evolution would need to occur for it to stop being a common historical phenomenon (besides the obvious total annihilation of Jews)? Are humans the only species that deliberately and systematically destroys other competing members of its species?
It’s called perpetual jealousy caused by an internal inadequacy and insecurity. Like an animal, these antisemites attack when they are afraid. Afraid of failure. Afraid of being outclassed and outranked by the more successful people. They do the same to some clever Chinese too, but they cannot discriminate, what, a billion of them?
We evolved in a prehistoric past where we had threats from other species and threats from other humans competing for food, etc. Those humans who carried genes that tended to divide the world into us vs. them groups were more likely to survive and pass those genes on to their progeny, etc. We still have those genes even though we no longer live in a Stone Age environment. We are not genetically predisposed to hate any particular group but we can be culturally “educated” to falsely believe that some human groups are more dangerous than others and need to be eliminated. Hitler was an example of promoting this type of behavior.
Chimpanzees, our closest primate relatives, also tend to divide the world into us vs. them families that compete for land to live on. This was noted by primatologist Jane Goodall. Chimpanzees don’t have the communication skills we do and we often useourv skills to communicate misleading information. We see examples of this everyday in the reporting on what politicians of different parties say about various issues. So it goes.
Blame Darwin. 😇
"We are not genetically predisposed to hate any particular group but we can be culturally “educated” to falsely believe that some human groups are more dangerous than others and need to be eliminated."
Falsely?
Well yes, we can be "educated" to falsely believe that some groups are more dangerous than actually are, and I agree that was the case with Hitler and the Jews.
We can also be "educated" to falsely believe (and pressured to pretend to believe by social conformity and threat of retaliation, social rejection, loss of livelihood, harassment, legal persecution, etc., just as other heresies were suppressed in earlier times), despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that no groups are more dangerous than others, and that all groups are identical on average in intellectual capacity, or in their ability to build and sustain advanced technological civilizations etc.
At this point it's not at all clear to me that the former is more dangerous than the latter. On the contrary, I think the latter is far more of a danger for certain groups in particular and therefore the future of civilization as a whole.
For example, it is now widely known even and admitted even by the British media, which covered it up and viciously slandered anyone who attempted to talk about it, that at least 10s of thousands of white British schoolgirls have been gang raped and sexually tortured by Pakistani gangs. And that when girls went to the police they were often called prostitutes, and sent back to their rapists, or arrested. And it had been going for over a decade.
This is on the scale of a wartime atrocity, and it happened in (ostensibly) peacetime, with the tacit support of the government against its own people. By invaders, invited and protected by the government, who consciously, deliberately target British white girls, and believe they justified in doing so by the rules of war according to their religion.
Inter-group conflict, sadly, is not a thing of the distant past, and the psychology that evolved for it may still be necessary for survival, like it or not. The misguided attempt to suppress it us while pretending to not see it in them, I think, is creating a world with more, not less inter-ethnic conflict and violence.