Andy Schmookler:
Just one point of clarification I'd like to make, Karen: it concerns the idea that "human intelligence and creativity" may in fact be the force behind judgment errors that inevitably leads to humanity's own destruction." The intelligence and creativity, I am saying, were the human gifts that made possible the breakout from the niche in which we evolved biologically, and the breakthrough into the new life-form, civilized societies. But the force that has been so destructive is something that emerges not out of those human capabilities, but out of the inevitably unregulated nature of that new life-system, civilization.
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April Moore:
I am especially struck by the notion that trauma can lead to a desperate need for certainty. I feel that this presentation helps me to understand people who have trouble tolerating difference--in religion, race, sexual orientation, etc. I am interested to learn that studies show that the greater the stress, the less a person can deal with ambiguities. It makes more sense to me now why some embrace the mystery of life, while others want to feel they know, with certainty, what it all means. I appreciate having this greater understanding now of many of my fellow citizens whose attitudes I've found puzzling.
Andy Schmookler:
Yes, trauma heightens ongoing fear, and fear is a powerful -- and often destructive -- motivating force. Which brings to my mind something that you just reported to me today, April, about how a study demonstrated that after seeing a scary movie, people the face of a person from a different ethnic group as angrier than people who did not just see such a frightening film.
Which, in turn, reminds me of how the leaders coughed up by the force of brokenness work so consistently to stoke people's fears. I just sent off to the newspapers my latest op/ed, which both tells and shows (using graphs) how Trump has told frightening lies--about a non-existent wave of illegal aliens, when the net flow had actually lately been back into Mexico; and about a non-existent wave of violent crime ("American carnage"), when the rate of violent crime in the U.S. has been sharply downward over the past quarter century, with but a minor uptick in 2015.
Fear may be important for survival in some situations. But it makes people in our complex political systems much more susceptible to deception and manipulation.
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Philip Kannelopolous:
Even if there were selfish genes, maybe they would become problematic only (or mostly) in the presence of the economic and political hierarchies of civilization. Maybe more egalitarian groups would keep any such naturally selfish tendencies among them in check. If we plucked some destructively selfish person from a modern hypercapitalist patriarchy and dropped him into a foraging band in the wilderness, he might learn very quickly to treat others with respect... or be driven from the group into vulnerable isolation. Maybe it's not so mysterious why humans haven't felt the need until now to formulate the parable of the tribes. After all, it must take a high level of intellectual rigor and courage and emotional sensitivity, in combination, to even conceive of the problem, let alone the solution. The mystery instead may be that more people haven't appreciated the solution now being presented to them, admittedly for a problem they've not yet even grasped. Indeed, my experience is that recognition of the problem itself is inexplicably resisted by many people. I believe that the essays in this series, gathered into a book, would make an important companion to the books 'The Parable of the Tribes' and 'Out of Weakness'.
Andy Schmookler:
That people did not "formulate the parable of the tribes" is in itself not surprising. After all, that idea -- as it came to me -- relies entirely on the elegant stroke of genius of Charles Darwin: i.e., the insight that the concrete entities could be shaped by the over-arching system in which they were embedded. Had I not had that notion in my mind already -- that systematic change can occur through natural selection sifting through naturally occurring variation I am sure it would never have occurred to me that civilized societies might have been shaped by a largely analogous process.
That being said, it does seem to me that a mystery should have been visible, even if its solution was not: i.e. the mystery, pointed to in this piece, of why the world is so broken despite the widespread desire of people for a more whole world as well as the evident ability of humankind to arrange so many other things in their world to achieve the results they desire.
Regarding the idea of these essays being gathered into a book, I appreciate what you say. Thank you. I also like that idea, and may look into the possibility of its realization.
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