Steve writes:
< My own experience with mob-behaviour is that there is something about
*my* behaviour/instincts/breeding that has me avoiding mob behaviour. >
When it was a matter of survival to have a pack for food and defense, it is not
hard to see how a preference for membership in pack would be bred-in. But
there could also be a niche for individuals that bridged multiple groups, like
traders. Part of being able to bridge groups is not getting too involved in
the pathologies of any one of them. Standoffishness could have an
evolutionary benefit as well, or there could be a predisposition for learning
that would give an evolutionary advantage to those that modulated the tendency
to be a joiner. In generations past, the crazy parents yelling at coaches and
refs could have been warriors and even dominant in some tribes. I think of
the reactionary voters as being kind like that -- the big fish in the little
pond. Their crude impulses worked in an environment with little risk, but at
some point they become targets for the bigger alpha dog.
Marcus
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