Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id PAA10018 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 7 Sep 2001 15:03:06 +0100 Message-ID: <2D1C159B783DD211808A006008062D3102A6CFA5@inchna.stir.ac.uk> From: Vincent Campbell <v.p.campbell@stir.ac.uk> To: "'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Subject: RE: FW: England humour Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2001 14:35:44 +0100 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2650.21) Content-Type: text/plain X-Filter-Info: UoS MailScan 0.1 [D 1] Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hi Philip,
<There must be some sociological reason for
> people taking up arms like that since they are prevalent all
> over the globe. Perhaps it's an expression
> of our natural lust for (tribal) warfare (survival of the
> fittest, the `it's either him or me' attitude) when we're
> lacking it now through modern-day society's inhibiting action
> (law, ethics, social control, etc.)
> It's seems to be our biological drive for animosity
> still calling the cards. Jerks from tucked away,
> long `forgotten' vestiges of brutal ancestry? >
>
I vaguely remember Richard Wright in 'The Moral Animal' talking
about this kind of thing as one of the big problems for evolutionary
psychology. Through kin selection it's reasonably straightforward to
understand aggression towards non-family, and there's always reciprocal
alturism to explain nice behaviour to non-family, but the capacity of humans
to unite as units like fans of the same football team, or as part of an
ideological "nation" ( in other words one that is more a construction than
being rooted in distinct ethnic/religious/geographical origins, so nations
like America or Australia I suppose; although all nations are ideological in
one sense or another- Anderson's Imagined Community), doesn't seem to fit
into a simple e.p. explanation.
A gap here for memes to exploit? Genes drive kin selection, Memes
drive (some aspects/kinds of) nationalism?
Vincent
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