Mob Rule

<thinks of several ugly thickos who emerged from Eton>

Nope, don't see it. More to do with wealth, privilege, power. The
originators of the w,p,p probably weren't ugly thickos, but that doesn't
mean the descendants aren't.

 

The Blue Lagoon 2.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
\`\ | /`/ GSX-R1000K3
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

Phil Launchbury scribbled:

<thinking about it for a while and wandering off to a different track>

"kids don't come born with morals"

Ok, so the difference is between "instincts" and any other behaviour we
exhibit.

Instincts are in our genetic code, we follow them, or try to. We might
need showing how to follow them, a wolf showing it young how to hunt,
but thats just filling in the details to allow the youngster to follow
its instincts. They're born with the driving force.

E.g. the instinct to reproduce, ensure we pass our genes on. Females
will die to protect their young, overriding the fight or flight
instinct. Males will shag anything to ensure the best chances of
passing on his DNA.

How do instincts arise? Millions or thousands of generations of
evolution, Darwinism. And that evolution is based on who survives
longer.

One big advantage is safety in numbers, ask any Wildebeast and they'll
tell you it works. And also hunting in packs works a lot better than
alone.

So groups of beings are good.

So ensuring that group is maintained is good.

So if one is in potentially fatal trouble, and another can help, it
makes "survival sense" for it to help.

Selfish compassion, looking at it from a purely logical point of view,
I'll agree.

But those animals who show this kind of behaviour have a better chance
of survival, so after a time they will evolve to have some kind of
"compassion like" instinct.

How long that may take, and if humans ever evolved this as an instinct
I haven't a clue. Its highly plausible we grew intelligent enough
first, figured out how to stop getting eaten/killed and removed the
need for instincts before this one managed to evolve?


But at the end of the day, to me personally, it feels far too much like
other instincts "feel". The base feeling has nothing to do with my
brain, its hardwired in to my cortex.

 

If either of my young get out of bed again someone is dying. It's
nearly midnight FFS. Just 5 minutes peace, is that too much to ask.

 

Work in progress? He'z just ziz guy, you know?

Heh, what do you think locks on bedroom doors are for? Hint : not for
keeping the boogieman out...

 

Verdigris scribbled:

If the individual is safer in a group it will develop the instinct to
form herds.

All instincts are just means to an end, the individual surviving as
long as possible. So the instinct may seem like its protecting the
species, but taken to its logical conclusion its protecting the
individual.

I would have thought the fact there are herds of all sorts of animals
is proof enough that its an instinctive thing.

Yup, I can see that. Also the fact humans are unique because our
intelligence has removed the need for instincts, and we can also
analyse them and then exploit them in others.

Guaranteed.

 

Verdigris scribbled:

Thats what I said.

A means to an end, that end being the individuals survival.