Fucking this. Can we all just take a minute to marvel at the cognitive phenomenon. The only thing I can figure is that this sort of behavior provided an evolutionary advantage at some point in the long distant past, but as human populations scaled up beyond small tribes and villages it becomes a malignant adaptation instead.
Rapid onset collectivism in the face of a large external threat is actually highly useful when confronting solitary predators.
If a Bird of Prey attacks a bird, the whole flock starts freaking the fuck out and basically sniping the Bird of Prey. They will follow it for quite some time as well.
If a single lion attacks an ape, all the other apes start to lose their shit and start (again) taking shots at the lion.
It's all basically a prey/herd response to a single outside threat.
Because humans have an incredible capacity for abstraction, some highly cognitive humans are clever enough to frame an abstraction in the exact same way you would display a solitary predator attack, in order to generate the same collectivist response. That collectivism temporarily modifies everyone's behavior. However, humans are social animals, but they are not herd animals. So, in order to be controlled, you have to have perpetual attacks that keep the collectivism going for as long as possible. You have to actually try to imbue the collectivism into their sense of self, so that they are too afraid to be without it. If you turn that collectivism into a dependency, then you've got a slave.
The evolutionary tool of mobilized temporary collectivism (effectively: marshaling), is still useful. You see it a lot, nowadays, when people try to hijack planes. Random people just all temporarily act in unison to attack a significant external threat that endangers each individual. The problem is that the human capacity for abstraction (a newer evolutionary tool, maybe 40,000 years old) is mingling with this absolutely ancient evolutionary tool (probably older than 40 million), and it gives us a giant mental exploit that other humans can create.
This is why "self-discipline" & "reasoning" is one of the most recent and advanced evolutionary tools we have to patch this exploit. Conscious effort to control emotion, and skeptically analyze a problem (once no longer burdened by immediate emotional stimuli) allows humans to resist such provocations. But it requires genuine emotional and mental fortitude through conscious training. Our modern authoritarian societies despise such things, and promote the opposite of that. This is why emotional incontinence is promoted and why stoicism is seen as evil.
Fucking this. Can we all just take a minute to marvel at the cognitive phenomenon. The only thing I can figure is that this sort of behavior provided an evolutionary advantage at some point in the long distant past, but as human populations scaled up beyond small tribes and villages it becomes a malignant adaptation instead.
Rapid onset collectivism in the face of a large external threat is actually highly useful when confronting solitary predators.
If a Bird of Prey attacks a bird, the whole flock starts freaking the fuck out and basically sniping the Bird of Prey. They will follow it for quite some time as well.
If a single lion attacks an ape, all the other apes start to lose their shit and start (again) taking shots at the lion.
It's all basically a prey/herd response to a single outside threat.
Because humans have an incredible capacity for abstraction, some highly cognitive humans are clever enough to frame an abstraction in the exact same way you would display a solitary predator attack, in order to generate the same collectivist response. That collectivism temporarily modifies everyone's behavior. However, humans are social animals, but they are not herd animals. So, in order to be controlled, you have to have perpetual attacks that keep the collectivism going for as long as possible. You have to actually try to imbue the collectivism into their sense of self, so that they are too afraid to be without it. If you turn that collectivism into a dependency, then you've got a slave.
The evolutionary tool of mobilized temporary collectivism (effectively: marshaling), is still useful. You see it a lot, nowadays, when people try to hijack planes. Random people just all temporarily act in unison to attack a significant external threat that endangers each individual. The problem is that the human capacity for abstraction (a newer evolutionary tool, maybe 40,000 years old) is mingling with this absolutely ancient evolutionary tool (probably older than 40 million), and it gives us a giant mental exploit that other humans can create.
This is why "self-discipline" & "reasoning" is one of the most recent and advanced evolutionary tools we have to patch this exploit. Conscious effort to control emotion, and skeptically analyze a problem (once no longer burdened by immediate emotional stimuli) allows humans to resist such provocations. But it requires genuine emotional and mental fortitude through conscious training. Our modern authoritarian societies despise such things, and promote the opposite of that. This is why emotional incontinence is promoted and why stoicism is seen as evil.