From: Grant Callaghan (grantc4@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri 18 Apr 2003 - 21:42:30 GMT
This psychological trait needs a name like other evolved psychological
characteristics such as capture-bonding (Stockholm Syndrome) and the
attention-reward (status) mechanism cults use. Both of these mechanism are
behind the spread of certain classes of memes. Privation driven memetic
dehumanization kind of captures the essence but doesn't even make a good
acronym.
Any thoughts?
Keith Henson
I see an evolved characteristic here but I don't see it necessarily linked
to privation. People do and always have found reasons to divide themselves
into groups that then separate themselves from others. We divide ourselves
into management and labor, upper and lower class, educated and ignorant,
protestant and Catholic, uptown and downtown, Irish and Italian expats,
etc., etc.
These divisions lead to conflict and often war. Gangs of New York is a
movie based on historical reality. Both gangs in the movie were equally
deprived and fighting to improve their social status at the expense of the
other. But even the richest people in the country (U.S.) do this when a
rich WASP finds reasons to exclude a rich Jew from inclusion in his club and
in his business. Privation, to my mind, is not the cause. Tribalism is a
more likely culprit.
Grant
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