[extropy-chat] examples of rational irrationalism (2)

[Keith Henson]

At 07:41 PM 12/5/2006 -0800, A; wrote:

snip
>Aggressive nationalism is irrational however in an aggressively 
>nationalistic world, aggressive nationalism can mean national survival-- a 
>default rationalism.

"Nationalism" and "nation"--a huge agglomeration of (on average) distantly 
related peoples usually speaking the same language--are not relevant to 
human evolution.  They happened far to late to have much effect on human 
genes and the psychological traits they construct.

Still, it is my claim that the exact same psychological traits that drove 
hunter gatherers to wars in the stone age are the cause of wars and related 
social disruptions.

I have recently been discussing this in detail in the comments section here:

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060916_sam_harris_rottweiler_barks/

Keith