(May 22, 2016 at 2:47 pm)TheRocketSurgeon Wrote:(May 22, 2016 at 2:09 pm)Cato Wrote: The programming you refer to is uniquely human and progress compared to our more primitive selves. The fact that some of us still display barbaric traits is not sufficient reason to denigrate the entire species.
Chimps are also naturally violent. The 'programming', as you call it, is the improvement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPznMbNcfO8
Cato, I was just about to go look for an example of exactly that phenomenon, when I read far enough to see you had already done so. Kudos.
Every time I see the things being complained about by the OP, all I can think is "damnit, we're still just chimps". We must use our evolved big brains to distinguish ourselves from them! And we are, as Pinker and others have pointed out. But our instincts still rule us, far too often.
The question is whether or not our more-chimplike hierarchical thinkers, our violence-against-what-is-feared types, will continue to try to rule all others... and whether or not success at this point in history will leave our planet a radioactive cinder.
The mistake represented in the OP's thinking is essentially that as things have been, so shall they always be. Another mistake he may be making is ascribing more human behavior to genetics than is warranted.
