Greetings, Nonzero community. I'm an admittedly occasional reader, but I keep seeing references to creating an "anti-tribal tribe" and I wanted to make a plug for the group Braver Angels (braverangels.org). They do workshops, discussion groups, and debates that promote deep and real conversation across the US's worst tribal divisions. I've been extremely impressed and inspired by their work and would encourage anyone interested in joining the "anti-tribal tribe" to check them out.
I've also been impressed by Andrew Yang's Forward Party, but have less experience with them.
Maybe someone from Braver Angels (I'd suggest John Wood, Jr.) or the Forward Party could be featured on the Wright Show?
I think to ascribe the retributive impulse to our past as hunters and gatherers (and selection for genes that spur the impulse) is rather speculative. I know that this continues to be a popular notion and model in evolutionary psychology (and I also found it appealing for a while--it just seemed very easy to join that tribe...).
But with new research emerging that upends our conventional ideas of what "our" shared evolutionary past looked liked, I'm coming away with the overwhelming impression that the sense of retribution is much more culturally determined (and having lived in different Western cultures, I've noticed that the retributive impulse is particularly strong in the US, especially as it's enshrined in the US justice system, but much less so in Europe).
As for the idea of a shared hunter and gatherer past, I recommend Graeber & Wengrow's "The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity" for a powerful rebuttal against the idea that humanity has a common shared past that fits the commonly assumed teleological schema of hunting/gathering-->agriculture-->industrialization-->technological/digital revolution. It also questions the long-held assumptions about how people governed themselves, including how they meted out justice.
I have no quibble with the notion that the retributive impulse often rears its ugly head--and that abandoning it is a wise and liberating action--but I no longer buy that it's encoded in our genetic repertoire.
Excellent mini-lectures. Concise and clear. I wonder, though, how much can be gained by trying to change people's heads one at a time. Institutions and social norms have the highest leverage in affecting behavior.
This series is really hitting home as what is needed now in our fair country. I'm sure these are things I already know, but to hear them again fresh is calming and inspiring. It's a nice mantra of rationality (evolutionary psychology) and inspiration (relax and imagine a better world).
i enjoy these talks, they address important things, but the animation not only doesn't add anything, it distracts. Doesn't really look like Bob either...
Do you agree that tribalism waxes and wanes with time? Interested in knowing more about the environmental factors that influence that. Seems like that's the better/easier place to intervene? Maybe? Sure seems like looking at history and even recent history in US that social factors can have big sway.
Greetings, Nonzero community. I'm an admittedly occasional reader, but I keep seeing references to creating an "anti-tribal tribe" and I wanted to make a plug for the group Braver Angels (braverangels.org). They do workshops, discussion groups, and debates that promote deep and real conversation across the US's worst tribal divisions. I've been extremely impressed and inspired by their work and would encourage anyone interested in joining the "anti-tribal tribe" to check them out.
I've also been impressed by Andrew Yang's Forward Party, but have less experience with them.
Maybe someone from Braver Angels (I'd suggest John Wood, Jr.) or the Forward Party could be featured on the Wright Show?
I find this idea interesting and amusing. Democrats as the top 2 quadrants and Republicans as the bottom 2 quadrants. Interested in Bob's take.
https://youtu.be/3O9FFrLpinQ
I think to ascribe the retributive impulse to our past as hunters and gatherers (and selection for genes that spur the impulse) is rather speculative. I know that this continues to be a popular notion and model in evolutionary psychology (and I also found it appealing for a while--it just seemed very easy to join that tribe...).
But with new research emerging that upends our conventional ideas of what "our" shared evolutionary past looked liked, I'm coming away with the overwhelming impression that the sense of retribution is much more culturally determined (and having lived in different Western cultures, I've noticed that the retributive impulse is particularly strong in the US, especially as it's enshrined in the US justice system, but much less so in Europe).
As for the idea of a shared hunter and gatherer past, I recommend Graeber & Wengrow's "The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity" for a powerful rebuttal against the idea that humanity has a common shared past that fits the commonly assumed teleological schema of hunting/gathering-->agriculture-->industrialization-->technological/digital revolution. It also questions the long-held assumptions about how people governed themselves, including how they meted out justice.
I have no quibble with the notion that the retributive impulse often rears its ugly head--and that abandoning it is a wise and liberating action--but I no longer buy that it's encoded in our genetic repertoire.
Excellent mini-lectures. Concise and clear. I wonder, though, how much can be gained by trying to change people's heads one at a time. Institutions and social norms have the highest leverage in affecting behavior.
This series is really hitting home as what is needed now in our fair country. I'm sure these are things I already know, but to hear them again fresh is calming and inspiring. It's a nice mantra of rationality (evolutionary psychology) and inspiration (relax and imagine a better world).
i enjoy these talks, they address important things, but the animation not only doesn't add anything, it distracts. Doesn't really look like Bob either...
Do you agree that tribalism waxes and wanes with time? Interested in knowing more about the environmental factors that influence that. Seems like that's the better/easier place to intervene? Maybe? Sure seems like looking at history and even recent history in US that social factors can have big sway.