[ExI] Evolutionary psychology was Re: I wish this was fake news

[Keith Henson]

Dave Sill <sparge at gmail.com> wrote:

On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 4:15 PM, John Clark <johnkclark at gmail.com> wrote:

>> I have no magic solution, if I had the power to prevent bad things that I
>> can see are about to happen Trump wouldn't have his finger on the nuclear
>> trigger today. But the first step is recognizing there is a problem that
>> needs solving and maybe somebody has a idea I haven't thought of. Any
>> suggestions?

> Just the one I already made: open dialogue with those you consider "the
> other side" so both "sides" can learn to see "them" as people with similar
> goals, not enemies to be scorned, ridiculed, and defeated. Sure, it's a
> long shot, but why not try?

You miss the evolutionary psychology mechanisms behind "sides."
Perception of a bleak future is observed to turn up the gain on
xenophobic memes (often religious in nature).  In the stone age, these
memes eventually synched up the tribe's warriors for a do or die
attack on the neighbors.  Win or lose, war solved the resource crisis
and the future looked bright again.  (Until the population built up
and there was another resource crisis.  BTW, Pope Urban II was the
first to articulate resource limits as a reason for war.)

It is not sensible to go against millions of years of evolution to get
"sides" to consider "them" as anything but "enemies to be scorned,
ridiculed, and defeated."  It's downstream of the cause for the "them"
vs "us" and ineffective.

Fixing the upstream cause takes improving the future outlook of the
people who are splitting up in preparation for killing each other.
That's what incidentally happened to the situation in Ireland with the
IRA.  The Irish women cut the number of children they had to the
European replacement standard.  That resulted in per capita income
rising and the future looking brighter.  This, in turn, led to the
loss of population support for the IRA (warriors) and the situation
cooled off.

To apply this to the US, the economic outlook for the large segment of
the population facing reduced future prospects would need to be
improved.

There are ways to improve the prospects of US population, but there is
little to no interest.

Keith