Perhaps one has heard the bit of common wisdom that
prejudices are not inherited, they are not inbred, they are learned. This writer wants to believe this notion without
any qualifications. The problem, though,
is that this whole business of “Us-vs.-Them” is a bit more complicated than
just attributing it to socializing hateful messages to young people.
One neuroendocrinologist,
Robert Sapolsky, writes on this very issue.
Here is an excerpt:
As it’s been said … “There are two
kinds of people in the world: those who
divide the world into two kinds of people and those who don’t.” There are more of the first. And it is vastly consequential when people
are divided into Us and Them, in-group and out-group, “the people” (i.e., our
kind) and the Other … The brain fault lines dividing Us from Them [can be shown
through a] discussion of oxytocin ... [T]he hormone prompts trust, generosity,
and cooperation toward Us but crappier behavior toward Them – more preemptive
aggression in economic play, more advocacy of sacrificing Them (but not Us) for
the greater good. Oxytocin exaggerates
Us/Them-ing.[1]
What seems to be going on is that there is an inbred bias
toward tribalism. That parochial bias
was probably useful in pre-civilization days when, due to scarcity, protecting
one group’s resources was vital to the survival of a tribe. Those groups so armed with oxytocin were
successful, those not so armed were not so successful.
But a hormone
cannot distinguish between people. The
bias might be inbred, but the target is learned. And, by wishing for more efficiency and, in
turn, the efficiency a tribe can attain by trading and cooperating with other
tribes – and later, with other peoples, nations, and leagues of nations – an
economic motivation was introduced to corral this bias under some control. That is, because it has proved so profitable,
humans marched toward global, economic arrangements. This march progressed from trading with those
nearby toward those far away.
At times,
these arrangements were set up by exploitive relations. This was probably most clearly done in the
age of colonization. Led by the European
powers, 1500s onward, efficiencies were had by stealing the resources of
others. Under such a system, an
Us-vs.-Them view was functional to seek that system’s immediate ends. Unfortunately, though, it sowed the seeds for
increasing levels of antagonism between the exploiters and the exploited and,
then, among the exploiters. History is
full of wars between and among colonial powers.
This
historical trend became evermore destructive.
Ironically, heavily influenced by the ever-increasing economic
viabilities of this global trend, monies were available to “advance” the military
capabilities of these exploiting actors.
These capabilities took a prodigious leap with the development of
industrial modes of production. One of
the first indication of how destructive industrial weaponry is was the American
Civil War. That war took the fighting
from open fields to urban areas. The
death rates rose substantially and included many non-combatants.
Then, a few
years later, there was World War I (18 million deaths) and World War II (50 to
80 million deaths). In addition, the
very economies of the warring nations were being devasted. World War II practically destroyed the
manufacturing facilities of Europe. In
other words, the very motivations that promoted exploitation were being attacked. Exploitation, via both the rationale of economic
advantage and demonizing the Them was undermined.
Hence, the
post-World War II movement toward a globalized economy materialized. There have also been policies, especially
among Western nations, to mature beyond Us-vs.-Them thinking. This, for a non-prejudicial person, is a
welcomed development, but one does need to remember: there is that natural bias toward Us/Theming.
The point here is: it doesn’t help to underestimate this
bias. All that is needed for this ugly
aspect of human nature to show itself is to have reverses in a nation’s
economic conditions. To wit, currently,
there is an apparent rise in nationalism – a type of Us/Theming. This writer believes that this is not a trend
emanating out of nowhere.
He sees it resulting from the Great
Recession and developments negatively affecting some groups who have suffered
from globalization. Specifically, those
groups are former manufacturing workers who have lost their jobs due to cheap,
competitive workers in developing countries.
Another group has been miners – particularly of coal – where economic
trends and concerns for the environment have lowered the demand for those minerals.
So, while the point that prejudices
are learned is correct when it is applied to who gets victimized, it does not
apply to people’s predispositions to develop prejudices. Therefore, and this lesson is important to
civics education, an enlightened people needs to be proactive in meeting the
challenge of prejudicial thinking. Not
all that is natural is best or even good.
[1] Robert M. Sapolsky, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
(New York, NY: Penguin Press, 2017),
387-389 (Kindle edition). Oxytocin is a
hormone. It is produced by the hypothalamus, in the brain, and emitted by the pituitary
gland. This is an
important hormone during the childbirth process and assists the male
reproduction function.
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