Who we are

Several Individual Pages Updated 2006 Sept, 13 Dec 2012, 09 Sept 2013 and 2 Mar 2016.

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Arising in antiquity, before mammals, before the atmosphere became what it is, genes were mutating in makeup and/or organization leaving their creations to survive or not as selection would have it for their particular niche. The advent of civilization and its exponential development came so fast, [in geologic time], that genes preferred for peaceful living have yet to be selected. They may never be if humanity persists along its present path. Yet there is Hope, lots of it. Nature itself provides it. And there are avenues for action, provided we can read the Tea Leaves.

• Peace Via Nature's Way
• Brevia
• Where We Are - Violence, War, Genocide
• Rocks in the Road Ahead
• Nuclear / Population Dangers

Authoritarians-Aggressive, Hierarchical, and Conventional, make up most of us. Our Achilles Heel is that we are also overly obedient and susceptible to charismatic personalities--for better or worse. When worse, problems arise all the way from the individual or family level to genocide on a national scale. Hitler's Germans were typical Authoritarians as shown by Adorno.

• Authoritarianism: First Surprise
• Authoritarianism I
• Authoritarianism II
• Authoritarianism III

Stanley Milgram in the post-war period, and more recently, Jerry Burger confirmed the personality was and still is common in the American culture as well. Beyond all that, Bob Altemeyer illustrated how the personality operates in and on politics; he found European and North American politicians are quite similar in their Authoritarianism. The trait seems to be universal and therefore enabled genetically.

• Authoritarianism: Second Surprise
• Features of Authoritarianism
• Authoritarians in Politics I
• Authoritarians in Politics II
• Authoritarians in Politics III
• Authoritarians in Politics IV
• Authoritarians in Politics V
• Authoritarians in Politics VI
• Authoritarians in Politics VII
• Managing Authoritarianism

The Authoritarian Personalities, APs, with their overly obedience, form a ready-made cadre for the psycho-sociopath. These people, mostly male, when charismatic, can capture the imaginations of the APs. Violence can know no end when these people take charge. Hitler's Germany and Rwanda were prime examples. So was My Lai on a smaller scale. Kent State was a mild--if student murders don't count--example of the same overly-obedient mechanics.

• Sociopathology I
• Sociopathology II
• Sociopath: Worst Cases
• Sociopathic Behavior I
• Sociopathic Behavior II

So far, the outline seems too aberrant to apply to the likes of you and me. But hold on--they do. Yes, healthy North-American college students were turned into abusive automatons in a matter of hours. Impossible? Not at all! For example, Philip Zimbardo devised a most-remarkable experiment that foretold Abu Ghraib accurately in remarkable detail. Given the right conditions, the cream of the North-American college crop can revert to sociopathic (jungle) behavior in 24 hours. An inescapable conclusion that follows is that the membrane that separates our civilized and violent selves is paper thin. This condition reflects how important the nature/nurture issue is to the future of humankind.

• Authoritarianism: Third Surprise
• Do We Know Ourselves?
• Stanford Prison Experiment Lessons I
• Stanford Prison Experiment Lessons II
• Bad Barrels vs. Bad Apples
• Abu Ghraib - High Level Bad Apples
• Stanford Prison Experiment, Insights

We are each born with a nature shaped by eons in the jungles, savannas, and mountains, fighting for survival. On the one hand aggressively taking charge of a willing group of followers could often win the day, enabling the winners to pass their genes on to the next generations. On the pther hand, altruistic parents who cooperated also survived in the face of adversity and their genes too were passed on for generations to mold and enhance. What that left each of us with is an intrinsic genetic construct that exhibits two clusters of emotional traits within each of us as individuals. These clusters are often in direct opposition to one another. In the vernacular, most of us have both our good and bad sides.

• How Nature Created This Problem
• Transition to Civilization
• Hope provided by Nature
• Nurture’s Response: Hope I
• Nurture’s Response: Hope II
• Nurture’s Response: Hope III
• Population Control

Given the inertia naturally present in all cultures, it will take generations to imbue the typical Joe and Jane citizen with the knowledge and wherewithal to create peaceful societies. Nevertheless it is not too late to start. Some thoughts follow.

• Known Origins of Terrorism
• It is time to Change Course I
• It is time to Change Course II
• Avenues Apparent I
• Avenues Apparent II
• Avenues Apparent III
• A new Approach I
• A new Approach II
• A new Approach III
• Afterwards??
• What Else We Can Do?
• Become Wise & Pass It On!

Wisdom, like insight, only comes to most of us after a lot of living and thinking about life. Too few of us shake off the blight of being overly obedient. Those seriously into these questions are invited to visit Browser's Hub for a more formal and much more complete rendition of the turf.

• Two Arresting Quotes
• Issues Remaining