Thanks for a beginning. Somehow we arrived at the polarization of an all or nothing state. Countering woke seems to be an ongoing struggle that will take many years. Clearly appeasement doesn't work. Mockery does have limited success. But wokery seems to be in process of self-destruction in that one can never be woke enough leading to an extreme that has to cause dissonance.
Fascinating and compelling but I parted company at the point where writer says: "Forager societies systematically repress dominance behaviour: by derision, by gossip, by shunning. If need be, by killing."
We have been in societies based on dominance behaviour for 12,000 years or so, following the move from hunter-gatherer to agrarian society. How did we evolve from forager societies with little dominance behaviour into 'civilisations', where dominance behaviour is rewarded and admired? The quote in full is this:
Such a process of killing off the alpha males has both archaeological evidence (larger males with bashed-in skulls) and anthropological evidence. Forager societies systematically repress dominance behaviour: by derision, by gossip, by shunning. If need be, by killing.
Dominance, top-down status, is the normal form of status in group-living mammals, including our primate cousins. Systematic selection against dominance by killing off alpha males led to the evolution of two other forms of status among us Homo sapiens. One is prestige: status through competence; through demonstrated capacity; through successful risk-taking. Young human males in particular are prone to seek such status.
Wokeness bears all the hallmarks of fundamentalist religion...which, of course, it is.
Fantastic opening salvo, you two. So looking forward to the next.
Happy New Year,
Me
The discussion of hominid evolution at the beginning of this is so fascinating.
26 part? That's a book!
Thanks for a beginning. Somehow we arrived at the polarization of an all or nothing state. Countering woke seems to be an ongoing struggle that will take many years. Clearly appeasement doesn't work. Mockery does have limited success. But wokery seems to be in process of self-destruction in that one can never be woke enough leading to an extreme that has to cause dissonance.
"Counter-Enlightenment Progressivism" is an excellent coinage. But it's broad enough to include old+school Marxism.
From the topic of your next essayl, can I guess that is intentional?
Fascinating and compelling but I parted company at the point where writer says: "Forager societies systematically repress dominance behaviour: by derision, by gossip, by shunning. If need be, by killing."
We have been in societies based on dominance behaviour for 12,000 years or so, following the move from hunter-gatherer to agrarian society. How did we evolve from forager societies with little dominance behaviour into 'civilisations', where dominance behaviour is rewarded and admired? The quote in full is this:
Such a process of killing off the alpha males has both archaeological evidence (larger males with bashed-in skulls) and anthropological evidence. Forager societies systematically repress dominance behaviour: by derision, by gossip, by shunning. If need be, by killing.
Dominance, top-down status, is the normal form of status in group-living mammals, including our primate cousins. Systematic selection against dominance by killing off alpha males led to the evolution of two other forms of status among us Homo sapiens. One is prestige: status through competence; through demonstrated capacity; through successful risk-taking. Young human males in particular are prone to seek such status.