Summary and discussion on the week's big topics: The Genocidal Brain; The Long Con of the U.S. Healthcare System; Hardwired for Civility; The Fight Against the Takers.
I found it interesting, this relationship between disgust and genocide. Disgust is interesting in that it causes us to turn away. Things that disgust us are not worthy of our attention. Looking away allows us to fail to see our innate connection to another person, animal or thing. I believe at the heart of this disconnect is our unresolved grief. We have interior rooms of unresolved grief which we each carry around with us as human beings. Grief, any type of grief, is the gateway to these dark corridors of our being where we stuff things we cannot or will not accept. Opening ourselves to grief opens us to connection, to empathy and humility. Psychopaths aside, I don’t believe we are necessarily changed forever when we do horrible things to each other. We can be quite unreasonable when we are hurt, even if we don’t know it. But until we can grieve for ourselves, how can we grieve for others? How can we be truly empathetic. Some progress may be possible with behaviour modification, but real change doesn’t come from reasoning, from balancing what our cost is for being the way we are. It comes from looking inside to our inner darkness and uncovering our own losses. As a society we are long overdue in establishing our connection with grief and to each other. The more time goes on, the more pain and suffering we have inside us. Is it any wonder we are going crazy. Maybe we should stop trying to get over it and rather, spend some time with our grief.
Like this, John. The sense of avoiding the pain of any form of grief leading to greater and greater distance. Resolving our own losses may help us reconnect. Also it resonates that we accumulate unresolved grief and anguish.
Thank you for explaining the genocidal mind. My question for you is ….. Were the Nazi soldiers’ brains hardwired for disgust/genocide? And if they were, how did those soldiers come home to their families and continue to survive in a Germany that needed to heal and become the Germany of today that takes steps to make sure that school children and upcoming generations of Germans are aware of the sins of the past? (“Where to Invade Next”) Michael Moore).
Great question. Surprisingly little evidence I could find on this. There were some survey studies that showed some residual Nazi sentiment remained in a small proportion of the population. I suspect that most of the admirable educational activities facing up to the horrors are directed by those who did not actively partake but also did not actively oppose the genocide. Those who did partake I think have had quite miserable existences since.
I have a German friend who was born in 1942. Her family had a small farm in the country. I just called her and asked her.She lived in Germany until 1969. Her father had been drafted into Hitler’s army. She told me that men who came home and talked about Nazism were beat up. She said after the war the people who lived in the cities were starving. They were lucky to be on the farm because they had food. The Marshall Plan actually saved Western Germany.
Most people are civilized and tend to gravitate toward giving and sharing. As you mentioned, this is hardwired into the brains of homo sapiens. But there is a tiny minority, outliers really, who think giving is weakness and just take and hoard. Sure, since the advent of modern industrial times such persons have always existed.
But there is a caveat, a disturbing one, to say the least. The difference is that in the last 40 years or so, the media has normalized such thinking. It has normalized taking and hoarding, it has normalized selfishness and greed, both of which are sure signs of mental illness. Of poor mental health.
We can do sonething as a collective. We are the majority. It is time for society—this is us—to push back against this thinking, against the greedy mind. To restore health and sanity to our society. To say giving and sharing is healthy and normal. Hoarding and greed is not.
You make a good medical case for this. There are other factors too I hope you’ll comment on. Eg in Rwanda there was scarcity for land ownership, and in the general melee, neighbors killed and confiscated land of Tutsis and some Hutus as well. That ties to another link: men gaining power get an actual sexual rush, and sometimes that alone is enough to propel cruelty and its celebration. Yeah there aren’t millions of actual serial killers but there are millions of tyrants (big and little, in societies and at home). My veterinarian said he learned in veterinary college that there is a thriving market of men, large numbers of them, who go to Asian countries and pay to torture animals, with a souvenir video to take home and wank to. As a psychologist, I know there are astonishing numbers of men who molest little girls and young teen girls. Actually killing their target would defeat the purpose, but surely this scourge is a kind of genocide of the spirit. I hate to think that for men, sexual arousal and dominance and sadism are all so closely linked, but it’s giving me pause as I consider whether or not to date again as a widow. Not that I fear them, but do I trust their character and what makes them “tick”? How do I learn if they are one of the “good ones”? Anyway, I digress. Do you see evidence that sexual urges and violence are closely linked through testosterone? Thanks for your work.
Perhaps so, Nancy; and there are women I know who do the same, but it is more about inflicting mental and emotional pain than physical. Harm is harm nevertheless. While there are sexual differences, there are many similarities between the sexes.
While it is absolutely true that more men than women are violent, violence is a human problem and violent societies tend to breed violent people. I view the U.S. as a violent society. I am Canadian and see my nation becoming more violent: economic difficulties tend to bring out the worst in people.
I found it interesting, this relationship between disgust and genocide. Disgust is interesting in that it causes us to turn away. Things that disgust us are not worthy of our attention. Looking away allows us to fail to see our innate connection to another person, animal or thing. I believe at the heart of this disconnect is our unresolved grief. We have interior rooms of unresolved grief which we each carry around with us as human beings. Grief, any type of grief, is the gateway to these dark corridors of our being where we stuff things we cannot or will not accept. Opening ourselves to grief opens us to connection, to empathy and humility. Psychopaths aside, I don’t believe we are necessarily changed forever when we do horrible things to each other. We can be quite unreasonable when we are hurt, even if we don’t know it. But until we can grieve for ourselves, how can we grieve for others? How can we be truly empathetic. Some progress may be possible with behaviour modification, but real change doesn’t come from reasoning, from balancing what our cost is for being the way we are. It comes from looking inside to our inner darkness and uncovering our own losses. As a society we are long overdue in establishing our connection with grief and to each other. The more time goes on, the more pain and suffering we have inside us. Is it any wonder we are going crazy. Maybe we should stop trying to get over it and rather, spend some time with our grief.
Like this, John. The sense of avoiding the pain of any form of grief leading to greater and greater distance. Resolving our own losses may help us reconnect. Also it resonates that we accumulate unresolved grief and anguish.
Thank you for explaining the genocidal mind. My question for you is ….. Were the Nazi soldiers’ brains hardwired for disgust/genocide? And if they were, how did those soldiers come home to their families and continue to survive in a Germany that needed to heal and become the Germany of today that takes steps to make sure that school children and upcoming generations of Germans are aware of the sins of the past? (“Where to Invade Next”) Michael Moore).
Great question. Surprisingly little evidence I could find on this. There were some survey studies that showed some residual Nazi sentiment remained in a small proportion of the population. I suspect that most of the admirable educational activities facing up to the horrors are directed by those who did not actively partake but also did not actively oppose the genocide. Those who did partake I think have had quite miserable existences since.
I have a German friend who was born in 1942. Her family had a small farm in the country. I just called her and asked her.She lived in Germany until 1969. Her father had been drafted into Hitler’s army. She told me that men who came home and talked about Nazism were beat up. She said after the war the people who lived in the cities were starving. They were lucky to be on the farm because they had food. The Marshall Plan actually saved Western Germany.
Most people are civilized and tend to gravitate toward giving and sharing. As you mentioned, this is hardwired into the brains of homo sapiens. But there is a tiny minority, outliers really, who think giving is weakness and just take and hoard. Sure, since the advent of modern industrial times such persons have always existed.
But there is a caveat, a disturbing one, to say the least. The difference is that in the last 40 years or so, the media has normalized such thinking. It has normalized taking and hoarding, it has normalized selfishness and greed, both of which are sure signs of mental illness. Of poor mental health.
We can do sonething as a collective. We are the majority. It is time for society—this is us—to push back against this thinking, against the greedy mind. To restore health and sanity to our society. To say giving and sharing is healthy and normal. Hoarding and greed is not.
You make a good medical case for this. There are other factors too I hope you’ll comment on. Eg in Rwanda there was scarcity for land ownership, and in the general melee, neighbors killed and confiscated land of Tutsis and some Hutus as well. That ties to another link: men gaining power get an actual sexual rush, and sometimes that alone is enough to propel cruelty and its celebration. Yeah there aren’t millions of actual serial killers but there are millions of tyrants (big and little, in societies and at home). My veterinarian said he learned in veterinary college that there is a thriving market of men, large numbers of them, who go to Asian countries and pay to torture animals, with a souvenir video to take home and wank to. As a psychologist, I know there are astonishing numbers of men who molest little girls and young teen girls. Actually killing their target would defeat the purpose, but surely this scourge is a kind of genocide of the spirit. I hate to think that for men, sexual arousal and dominance and sadism are all so closely linked, but it’s giving me pause as I consider whether or not to date again as a widow. Not that I fear them, but do I trust their character and what makes them “tick”? How do I learn if they are one of the “good ones”? Anyway, I digress. Do you see evidence that sexual urges and violence are closely linked through testosterone? Thanks for your work.
People who torture animals are psychopaths and likely inflict harm on humans as well. They do not deserve to walk around freely.
But my point is, there are way way more guys who enjoy inflicting suffering than we like to acknowledge.
Perhaps so, Nancy; and there are women I know who do the same, but it is more about inflicting mental and emotional pain than physical. Harm is harm nevertheless. While there are sexual differences, there are many similarities between the sexes.
While it is absolutely true that more men than women are violent, violence is a human problem and violent societies tend to breed violent people. I view the U.S. as a violent society. I am Canadian and see my nation becoming more violent: economic difficulties tend to bring out the worst in people.
Ok so we’re back into the “not all men”. Sigh. Yes women can be horrible. But the differences in frequency are impossible to ignore.