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"why we celebrate a killing"

Submitted by Anne Dalke on Sun, 05/08/2011 - 7:45am

More grist for the mill: Jonathan Haidt, a psych prof @ UVA, wrote in the NYTimes this morning about "why we celebrate a killing." He uses he language of evolutionary psychology to explain the "social sentiments" and "collective effervescence" of what Émile Durkheim called "Homo duplex," or "two-level man." (This story makes me shudder.)

Groups:

The Story of Evolution and the Evolution of Stories: EvoLit

Comments

I must admit...

Submitted by Roy Nelson (guest) on Tue, 05/10/2011 - 11:54am.

Prof Haidt... makes me shudder too, he uses facts very selectively... altruistic and cooperative behaviour has been seen at bacterial level... even sperm do it... and the ONE book of his I read and some of his articles all most seem geared to getting more research funding... I am not american, but seeing this expounded with some wishywashy "facts" makes me want hang my head... surely the human race... can do better... I would really like to hear what he has to say about people like Etty Hillesum, Frankl etc...

I wonder if he has stopped to think how this will be perceived from the outside and if the people on the outside will now also react in the same way, is something reciprocal is done... which by his argument it is OK... AND acceptable the end result more dead people and less understanding between people as walls strengthen...

I shall stop there...
#R;