[ExI] Food for thought

[hkhenson]

At 02:55 AM 9/11/2008, you wrote:
>On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 7:09 PM, hkhenson 
><<mailto:hkhenson at rogers.com>hkhenson at rogers.com> wrote:
>The theory states that populations with a growing income per capita 
>will not start a war.  (They can still be attacked of course.)
>
>Mmhhh. Really? What if the population with a growing income per 
>capita is under the impression that it is going soon to hit a glass 
>(or other) ceiling?

You make a main point I make in the EP, memes and war article.

Humans are perhaps even more sensitive to an anticipated future.

That was the origin of the US Civil War.  The South anticipated the 
loss of slaves, which were a huge part of the economy in those 
days.  They were, of course, correct and some say the economic 
effects lasted 100 years.

Of course war was not a rational move for the relatively smaller and 
less wealthy south to undertake.  But the switched on behavioral 
traits led in that direction.  It is amusing to think about how a 
person versed in these EP models would have reacted.  The stupidest 
thing the south did was to attack.  Had they not done so, it is 
possible the north would have let them go, but being attacked is the 
surest and fastest way to get a people into "war mode."

Consider Pearl Harbor.  Or 9/11.

Keith