Humans are primates. Primates are social animals. We form tribes.
And tribes, across the planet and throughout history, have always had two major internal sins. Sins against the tribe itself.
I'm talking death or exile are the only answers to violators sins.
The first sin is betrayal.
In simple terms, it's choosing the success and well-being of an outsider over that of your tribe. Doesn't sound so bad today. But back in the day, this was "opening the castle gates for the enemy tribe" level shit.
Check out Romeo & Juliet. Two dumbass teenagers choosing the outsider over the tribe gets a half-dozen people slaughtered in days.
In lean years, bad years, famine years, the tribes that survived were the ones who were willing to kill the next tribe over and take their stuff. Everyone alive today, including you and me, are descended from them.
The betrayers? The ones who let the outsider in? They got killed and their stuff got taken.
The second sin has a couple of different meanings, so we'll have to work our way up to wrapping our heads around them.
The earliest term (and you socialist fucks are going to love this one) is loosely defined as "hoarding food away from the rest of the tribe."
Again, it is an act of taking away from your tribemates. Which can lead to their deaths, especially in harsh times.
But obviously we don't scream at people for specifically hoarding food from the tribe today. (toilet paper is a whole nother story)
I could call it unfairness, but that implies fair as a ground state of affairs.
We saw it in cultures that nobody would call fair as a baseline today.
Take feudalism. Nobody alive today would call this a fair society.
But even for what it was, this sin is more the realm of those who enjoy their granted rights but forsake their privileges.
Just being a feudal baron wouldn't be this sin.
But hiding in his castle and refusing to defend attacks to his vassals very much would be.
"Willful cheating in bad faith" is the closest term I can come up with that works today.
These two sins are baked into our DNA. These are the two biggest internal threats to the primitive tribes that we all descended from. And they are still what hits our emotional buttons HARD even when we try to intellectualize.
Unfortunately, tribal instincts don't upscale well. Nor do they account for nuance. the risk:reward ratio in either of those sins was so great that death or exile at the least were the most common punishments for them. Murder one person, rape one person, you MIGHT be allowed to live. But betrayal and cheating put the entire tribe at risk, and the risk of keeping the sinner alive was too great.
Keep that shit in your DNA for a couple millennia, and you can see it short-circuit your brain in real time.
When we find out someone close to us supports or voted for a cause or person we find repugnant, the BETRAYAL light kicks on in our brains. Someone in your "tribe" has chosen a dangerous and repugnant other, when they could have been supporting the tribe instead.
Why they did it doesn't matter.
Not ignorance, not focus on another issue entirely, not honest belief.
None of that compares to the BETRAYAL light kicking on.
Now, we don't live in a tribal society anymore, so death or exile usually aren't on the table.
But shunning? Easy. If you're not tied to someone by needed resources (a coworker you can't shut up in a job you can't quit, a roommate you can't afford to kick out, ect), shunning is easy.
As is ostracism. Doxxing. If you don't want to tell a betrayer how repugnant they are, there's a mob ready and willing to do it for you.
We have successfully outsourced tribal punishments.
But what about the big CHEATING light?
Well, as Americans, we have a baseline idea of what fair and just is.
And while we as a country have a certain admiration for cleverly exploiting loopholes, Willful Cheating In Bad Faith as I described above slams on that big red CHEATING light.
As sports fans, we get into fights in the stands when a referee makes a bad call.
Now scale that up.
Historically speaking, watching cops confront and kill people isn't all that significant. Part of the job since we turned the words "shire reeve" into "sheriff."
But if you keep seeing people who look like you being confronted and killed by cops while people who don't look like you keep walking away alive?
The big red CHEATING light flashes on.
Seeing the person you didn't vote for win on a procedural technicality?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Watching people get away with shady shit that just happens to benefit them and fuck you?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Watching people condemn you for getting violent, only to turn around a few months later and get violent themselves?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Watching people get violent, then turn around and talk shit about you a few months later when you're getting violent?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Bear in mind, absolutely nothing I've used as an example needs to be true for this to happen. It just needs to be presented that way just enough to flip that light on.
And then, any reasons, excuses, or circumstances face long uphill battles to get any sort of measured response.
Because our brains are back in the day when that light coming on means the person flipped it was going to get us and everyone we cared about killed.
With all that shit in mind, think back on the past few years.
No fucking wonder we're all exhausted, terrified, heartbroken, and pissed off all at once.
Those fucking lights have been going off on a regular basis for years.
I woke up this morning to find that a Capitol police officer died in the hospital. He was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher.
And all I could think of is that sometime in the future, an "unarmed" rioter is going to be shot and killed by a cop, and two people who used to like each other are going to see "BETRAYAL" going off on each other. And only one of them will remember that officer and that fire extinguisher.
So, how do we change this?
No idea.
Humanity sure as fuck hasn't tried changing these instincts.
We sure as hell know how to exploit them though.
They may not label them "BETRAYAL" and "CHEATING" or make the historical connection. But I guarantee you every political operator, rabble-rouser, PR guru and marketing suit knows how to flash those lights in a way to make people do what they want. And they're all playing everyone at once.
I mean, for fuck's sake, Among Us made a popular game out of making your character's personal "BETRAYAL!" light go off.
Knowing that it's happening only does so much. You and the person you're seeing the light on top of both have to recognize it and investigate it.
And we need to police our own tribes.
Tribes work together when leaders make subordinates behave around the other tribe.
AND when leaders in the other tribes stand back and LET THEIR OWN LEADERS DO IT.
Sitting back on your ass and insisting the other side do what you want only makes you look like someone too clueless to realize that they don't answer to you.
Romeo and Juliet again.
Act 1, scene 5. The party. For those who got distracted by the horny teenagers when that happened, it's a Capulet shindig, the Montague boys crash it. Tybalt goes to old man Capulet, asking for permission to throw hands.
And the Old Man shuts Tybalt the fuck down. Capulet makes it absolutely clear that, mortal enemies or no, they became guests the moment they walked in the door. Tybalt is NOT going to make the Old Man look like a bad host in his own house. And he's in for a world of hurt if he tries.
"Be quiet, or I'll make you quiet."
It's quite possibly one of the most peacekeeping moments in the entire show. The party didn't last forever, because tragedy. But it's clear that proper manners are extremely important when dealing with people you regularly try to kill in a place where doing so isn't ideal.
Fun side note: depending on staging, it's entirely possible the Montagues have no idea that this exchange is going on. Think about that the next time you don't see someone on the other side being told to behave.
Tribal conflicts suck.
But there are some big differences between tribal conflicts where everyone minds their manners and tribal conflicts that are complete free-for-alls.
TL:DR
Watch for your BETRAYAL and CHEATER lights going off.
And
Police your own.
Take care of yourselves out there.
And tribes, across the planet and throughout history, have always had two major internal sins. Sins against the tribe itself.
I'm talking death or exile are the only answers to violators sins.
The first sin is betrayal.
In simple terms, it's choosing the success and well-being of an outsider over that of your tribe. Doesn't sound so bad today. But back in the day, this was "opening the castle gates for the enemy tribe" level shit.
Check out Romeo & Juliet. Two dumbass teenagers choosing the outsider over the tribe gets a half-dozen people slaughtered in days.
In lean years, bad years, famine years, the tribes that survived were the ones who were willing to kill the next tribe over and take their stuff. Everyone alive today, including you and me, are descended from them.
The betrayers? The ones who let the outsider in? They got killed and their stuff got taken.
The second sin has a couple of different meanings, so we'll have to work our way up to wrapping our heads around them.
The earliest term (and you socialist fucks are going to love this one) is loosely defined as "hoarding food away from the rest of the tribe."
Again, it is an act of taking away from your tribemates. Which can lead to their deaths, especially in harsh times.
But obviously we don't scream at people for specifically hoarding food from the tribe today. (toilet paper is a whole nother story)
I could call it unfairness, but that implies fair as a ground state of affairs.
We saw it in cultures that nobody would call fair as a baseline today.
Take feudalism. Nobody alive today would call this a fair society.
But even for what it was, this sin is more the realm of those who enjoy their granted rights but forsake their privileges.
Just being a feudal baron wouldn't be this sin.
But hiding in his castle and refusing to defend attacks to his vassals very much would be.
"Willful cheating in bad faith" is the closest term I can come up with that works today.
These two sins are baked into our DNA. These are the two biggest internal threats to the primitive tribes that we all descended from. And they are still what hits our emotional buttons HARD even when we try to intellectualize.
Unfortunately, tribal instincts don't upscale well. Nor do they account for nuance. the risk:reward ratio in either of those sins was so great that death or exile at the least were the most common punishments for them. Murder one person, rape one person, you MIGHT be allowed to live. But betrayal and cheating put the entire tribe at risk, and the risk of keeping the sinner alive was too great.
Keep that shit in your DNA for a couple millennia, and you can see it short-circuit your brain in real time.
When we find out someone close to us supports or voted for a cause or person we find repugnant, the BETRAYAL light kicks on in our brains. Someone in your "tribe" has chosen a dangerous and repugnant other, when they could have been supporting the tribe instead.
Why they did it doesn't matter.
Not ignorance, not focus on another issue entirely, not honest belief.
None of that compares to the BETRAYAL light kicking on.
Now, we don't live in a tribal society anymore, so death or exile usually aren't on the table.
But shunning? Easy. If you're not tied to someone by needed resources (a coworker you can't shut up in a job you can't quit, a roommate you can't afford to kick out, ect), shunning is easy.
As is ostracism. Doxxing. If you don't want to tell a betrayer how repugnant they are, there's a mob ready and willing to do it for you.
We have successfully outsourced tribal punishments.
But what about the big CHEATING light?
Well, as Americans, we have a baseline idea of what fair and just is.
And while we as a country have a certain admiration for cleverly exploiting loopholes, Willful Cheating In Bad Faith as I described above slams on that big red CHEATING light.
As sports fans, we get into fights in the stands when a referee makes a bad call.
Now scale that up.
Historically speaking, watching cops confront and kill people isn't all that significant. Part of the job since we turned the words "shire reeve" into "sheriff."
But if you keep seeing people who look like you being confronted and killed by cops while people who don't look like you keep walking away alive?
The big red CHEATING light flashes on.
Seeing the person you didn't vote for win on a procedural technicality?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Watching people get away with shady shit that just happens to benefit them and fuck you?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Watching people condemn you for getting violent, only to turn around a few months later and get violent themselves?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Watching people get violent, then turn around and talk shit about you a few months later when you're getting violent?
The CHEATING light flashes on.
Bear in mind, absolutely nothing I've used as an example needs to be true for this to happen. It just needs to be presented that way just enough to flip that light on.
And then, any reasons, excuses, or circumstances face long uphill battles to get any sort of measured response.
Because our brains are back in the day when that light coming on means the person flipped it was going to get us and everyone we cared about killed.
With all that shit in mind, think back on the past few years.
No fucking wonder we're all exhausted, terrified, heartbroken, and pissed off all at once.
Those fucking lights have been going off on a regular basis for years.
I woke up this morning to find that a Capitol police officer died in the hospital. He was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher.
And all I could think of is that sometime in the future, an "unarmed" rioter is going to be shot and killed by a cop, and two people who used to like each other are going to see "BETRAYAL" going off on each other. And only one of them will remember that officer and that fire extinguisher.
So, how do we change this?
No idea.
Humanity sure as fuck hasn't tried changing these instincts.
We sure as hell know how to exploit them though.
They may not label them "BETRAYAL" and "CHEATING" or make the historical connection. But I guarantee you every political operator, rabble-rouser, PR guru and marketing suit knows how to flash those lights in a way to make people do what they want. And they're all playing everyone at once.
I mean, for fuck's sake, Among Us made a popular game out of making your character's personal "BETRAYAL!" light go off.
Knowing that it's happening only does so much. You and the person you're seeing the light on top of both have to recognize it and investigate it.
And we need to police our own tribes.
Tribes work together when leaders make subordinates behave around the other tribe.
AND when leaders in the other tribes stand back and LET THEIR OWN LEADERS DO IT.
Sitting back on your ass and insisting the other side do what you want only makes you look like someone too clueless to realize that they don't answer to you.
Romeo and Juliet again.
Act 1, scene 5. The party. For those who got distracted by the horny teenagers when that happened, it's a Capulet shindig, the Montague boys crash it. Tybalt goes to old man Capulet, asking for permission to throw hands.
And the Old Man shuts Tybalt the fuck down. Capulet makes it absolutely clear that, mortal enemies or no, they became guests the moment they walked in the door. Tybalt is NOT going to make the Old Man look like a bad host in his own house. And he's in for a world of hurt if he tries.
"Be quiet, or I'll make you quiet."
It's quite possibly one of the most peacekeeping moments in the entire show. The party didn't last forever, because tragedy. But it's clear that proper manners are extremely important when dealing with people you regularly try to kill in a place where doing so isn't ideal.
Fun side note: depending on staging, it's entirely possible the Montagues have no idea that this exchange is going on. Think about that the next time you don't see someone on the other side being told to behave.
Tribal conflicts suck.
But there are some big differences between tribal conflicts where everyone minds their manners and tribal conflicts that are complete free-for-alls.
TL:DR
Watch for your BETRAYAL and CHEATER lights going off.
And
Police your own.
Take care of yourselves out there.
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