Category: Civilization, History, and Anthropology

READ AND UNDERSTAND

by Brandon Hayes

Humans we are fractionating! This is obvious to those paying any attention. However, instead of being excited for the chance to speciate; we’re panicked; why?

Well, I’m going to venture a guess it has something to do with the reason the fractionation is taking place.

If you look at the chart (painstakingly put together I imagine) many of those groups are of the new abstract type mentioned above. They are groups basing their identity on their collective prejudiced opinions of out-groups.

I’ve written recently about empathy (and compassion) as poor out-group strategies as they favor an out-group over an in-group. However, the action to be taken in lieu of empathy isn’t combat! Nuance people, nuance!

Cooperation or non-interaction between groups is better (more positive results) than blind empathy (hurts the in-group) or conflict (destroys the weaker group). What the above paper labels as out-group learning, that’s understanding those not in your group, reduces prejudice by a significant margin. Who would have thought understanding those different than you makes you judge them less (typically)! <That’s sarcasm internet; of course this is the case.

People say don’t judge; this is like asking people not to think. Humans make judgments when they think; they don’t get to turn that off when it comes to humans (or groups of humans). Every man ought to be an adequate and fair judge of reality; it’s a duty.

We ought to welcome the speciation by creating groups based on in-group preference (mainly) and save the out-group prejudice for those acting to harm us (they exist but it’s not everyone who thinks a bit differently than you).

If we coalesce into one human race we lose our evolutionary advantages (as these are culture and geographic specific); we squander the human biological platform; we make a joke out of what evolution took 3.5 billion years to create. Just because we can become one, doesn’t mean it is the proper path. [Breeding all the dogs breeds together to make a “super dog” DOESN’T work < this is not how genetics works]

We can get along without destroying what made us evolutionarily viable. We can cohabitate in peace. Love should wane with each concentric kinship sphere; we should look to cooperate and create “win, wins”; what good is being human if we can’t transcend what makes us animal?