Why you hate each other (a psychological perspective on bitch slapping) (1030 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.55 on 23 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Affinity (View user info) at 2005-03-17 21:53:41 EST
Disclaimer: Beer ingested prior to writing
There has been much bitching about Canadians, Americans, Frenchies ect....
Consider this: Why is it that you can operate a digital watch, drive a car, etc...
all manner of amazing things, but you all get hotter than Fat Tony's inner thighs about
the wierdest things.
Consider:
Much of our higher cognitive function is devoted to the intricacies of interpersonal relations and social living. The splendid range of such devices allows for primitive mind reading in the form of body language and discourse analysis, emotional and material investment in other individuals or groups where that investment either secures or makes a return on that initial investment. We have theory of mind; a system that allows us to imagine or model another's psychological experience of the world this time allowing for empathy, the development of ethical and moral systems and consequently phenomenon such as charity and guilt.
These cognitive systems have developed as the human brain has developed. Humans have the highest brain to bodymass ratio of all large animals, around 1400 cubic centimetres, well over twice that of a gorilla or chimpanzee (Dolphins have the second highest; sharks have the highest for a fish; and octopuses have the highest for an invertebrate). While this is not an absolute measure (inasmuch as a minimum brain-mass is necessary for certain "housekeeping" functions), the brainmass to bodymass ratio does give a good indication of relative intelligence.
In conjunction with brain size, the organisational strategies the brain employs are heavily implicated in the sophistication of our mental worlds. Indeed, it is fairly safe to say that we are the most sophisticated organic computers we know of (while this certainly isn't an anthopomorphic argument it may be a speciest one!).
So what are we doing with this uber-brain?
Well the answer to that is 'exactly what it was designed for and more'. The cognitive and neurological systems the brain employs are contemporary to the evolution of early man 200,000+ years ago. Evolution is not in the buisness of predicting environments, only adapting to the challenges contemporary environments pose. However, the human brain is a computer, and any computer worth it's salt can also be described as a meta-machine. Simply put, a machine that is capable of producing an adaptive response to a task. A swiss army brain. It has largey been able to deal with the complexities of social living, but has been failing us of late. I shall attempt to describe.
What is the one thing we could have if we had one social-environment wish?
An end to war would be popular, as would an end to prejudice or discrimination. How about an end to poverty or avarice?
All wishy-washy thinkers (such as myself) would sacrifice a great deal if just one of these unlikely wishes came true. But why don't they happen naturally if they are in our best interest. Well there's your answer right there. They may not be in the organisms (that's us) best interest.
This is because we are trading off cognitive mechanisms that are thousands of generations old. Have we as a species not been fighting over the same motivations for as long as recorded history and beyond?
Resources
Racial Purity (or at least notions of)
Religion
Greed
Regime change (had to slip that one in)
Fear of assimilation
Fear of annihilation
Fear of Death
A fabulous combination of the above
Then you have the interpersonal motivations:
Envy
Greed
Jealousy
Desire etc. etc.
So what makes today different? Well I am going to argue that it is luxury. Granted I live in the decadent west blah blah, but bear me out on this.
Remember back in the seventies when consumer science shows like tomorrows world categorically stated that robots would be doing all the work in the near future? Well they weren't lying. Robots are doing loads of the work that we were doing; the powers that be just found more work for us to do! God bless capitalism and god bless Britain and America.
Sit on any bus in Sheffield and you will hear the following conversation;
"Aye, we don't make nothing in England anymore"
They're right. Manufacturing either goes out to tiger economies where robots can't do the work and labour is cheap, or to tiger economies where robots are doing the work and land, tax etc. is cheap.
So where is the luxurious life of sophisticated plenty we were promised. Well without wanting to patronise anybody with a modicum of economic sense, we ARE living more luxurious lives. Doesn't anyone remember living in the seventies? It was crap. Food was crap. Television was crap. Cars were crap. Holidays were crap. Houses were crap and so on. The thing about capitalism is while it can raise your standard of living; implicit within this gift is a coded hierarchy of material attainment. Even the poorest of economic groups in England have a quality of living and access to services one just did not have in the seventies. So no more of those 'good old days' type statements or it would serve you right to get some horrible (and now curable) disease and be transported back through time to those good old days.
My point is that while fundamentally human, the drive to succeed, to procure better resources for you and yours (capitalism is a sophisticated expression of this drive) is at odds with a relativistic notion of achievement.
If I were to go back to the seventies and said to every family in the country
"I have it within my power to send you all forward in time to the year 2004. Not only that but I will furnish you with a 28" colour digital television, a washing machine, a vacuum cleaner, two toilets in your house, a 50% chance of surviving cancer, a strange new resource called the internet (and so on). The only catch is that everyone in the country will have exactly the same".
Most would leap at the chance and be unhappy about that decision 45 minutes later when they realised there is nothing on cable television.
None of us are willing to settle for an even share of resources even in the knowledge that relatively speaking that percentage will increase as technology improves because we have a cognitive system for achievement that can only measure by comparing yourself to those with less, and those with more.
Yack Yack Yack
User Reviews
Submitted by Obi-wan (user info) at 2005-06-07 16:56:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
NO
Submitted by kai070169 (user info) at 2005-06-07 16:28:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
write more
Submitted by Affinity (user info) at 2005-04-18 09:52:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Marmite not Vegemite Wazza. Though I appreciate the gesture
Submitted by lordofthedance (user info) at 2005-04-18 07:13:07 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2005-03-18 12:12:10 (#)
Ranking: -1
Too many big words.
Hell, woo many words, period.
_________________
Look at this fucking guy. I hate him. So much....It's eating at me. Why do I care about an attention starved 50 year old who trolls internet sites looking for friends. He has no fucking lips either. I don't trust people without lips. What does "Woo many words" mean anyway?
"Oh....hi....my "handle" is a permutation of a colloquial reference to a penis. Does that make me cool?"
No. It is an accurate description of yourself. Penis.
Submitted by mrwolf (user info) at 2005-04-18 06:49:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'd love to go back to the 70's and go "I can switch my living room light on with my DVD players remote control, not onlt that but I can make it dimmer by holding the button down".
They'd probably call me a lazy fuck and continue to frollick in the much less smoggy fields that have since had roads built over them.
Your point is definitely valid, but much as I like technology, as evidenced by my incredibly lazy light switch, I still long for the carefree days of fields and affordable mortgages.
Submitted by Wazza (user info) at 2005-04-18 06:08:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
You my friend have a gift of insight no doubt.
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2005-03-18 12:12:10 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
Too many big words.
Hell, woo many words, period.
Submitted by MANICMOTHER (user info) at 2005-03-18 11:56:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Interesting............
You and I should chat.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2005-03-18 09:31:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
What the fuck did I just read?
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2005-03-18 09:16:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I use my grossly overdeveloped brain to keep me from getting busted reading Ubersite at work.
Oh and to score weed too.
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2005-03-18 08:24:47 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2005-03-18 07:33:25 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
So where is the luxurious life of sophisticated plenty we were promised. Well without wanting to patronise anybody with a modicum of economic sense, we ARE living more luxurious lives. Doesn't anyone remember living in the seventies? It was crap. Food was crap. Television was crap. Cars were crap. Holidays were crap. Houses were crap and so on. The thing about capitalism is while it can raise your standard of living; implicit within this gift is a coded hierarchy of material attainment. Even the poorest of economic groups in England have a quality of living and access to services one just did not have in the seventies. So no more of those 'good old days' type statements or it would serve you right to get some horrible (and now curable) disease and be transported back through time to those good old days.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
*cheers*
Submitted by TigerLilly (user info) at 2005-03-18 07:17:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Sure thang!
Submitted by hobbs (user info) at 2005-03-18 04:13:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I skiped stright to the pic.
I love it.
Submitted by Wazza (user info) at 2005-03-18 02:44:11 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
yes, and for that intent the intention was never intended!
Submitted by munkeypants (user info) at 2005-03-18 02:05:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by MrWillard (user info) at 2005-03-18 02:04:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
whait in the hell...i'm dnoot reeading all tis shit.
go to hell
goodamnit why don't I have anyone to dunk dial
Submitted by Umbilical_Cord (user info) at 2005-03-18 00:33:45 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Agreed. We weren't designed for the world we made.
Submitted by Jo_of_the_golden_P (user info) at 2005-03-18 00:04:36 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Hahaha robots
wtf I'm not reading all that.
well, ok. good shit.
Submitted by EbolaMay (user info) at 2005-03-17 23:07:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I wanted to read this. I really did. It seemed well written and intelligent.
Unfortunatly it was so long my beard grew out to the street, someone flicked a ciggarette on it, it burned back into the building and engulfed me and the building in flames.
Thanks to you, 329 people died a horrific, fiery and agonizing death.
See you hell. Asshole. Dress for the tropics. It's hot down here.
Submitted by Caulaincourt (user info) at 2005-03-17 22:49:20 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by DanielH (user info) at 2005-03-17 22:47:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
"Learn to swim."
-Tool
Nature had the first say, she'll likewise have the last.
Submitted by lordofthedance (user info) at 2005-03-17 22:38:14 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Octopi.
Still...well written. Interesting points.