The Violence of the Frontal Lobe

Even worse are the black magicians or “computer hackers” who intentionally spread the virus. Think back to a time when you or someone you know was angry with someone else and desired revenge. In order to seek revenge you said something to or about that person with the intention of spreading poison and making that person feel bad about himor herself. As children we do this quite thoughtlessly, but as we grow older we become much more calculated in our efforts to bring other people down. Then we lie to ourselves and say that person received a just punishment for their wrongdoing. (Location 384)
  • crowd mentality takedowns of an individual (cancel culture closer to mob culture)
  • memetic following of a leader who's intentions are many levels removed
  • reactive vs proactive violence in chimps 202301210055 and humans
  • humans are trained in childhood to become non reactive violent species, we instead focus on premeditated violence which is more deadly and intentional

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I am glad to be a generally nonviolent human and not an ape: if I were a chimpanzee, I’d spend an appreciable part of my day trying to avoid being beaten up or killed. (Location 2626)

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According to Wrangham, humans differ from other animals, especially our ape cousins, in having exceedingly low levels of reactive aggression but much higher levels of proactive aggression. We correspond to Rousseau in terms of reactive aggression and to Hobbes in terms of proactive aggression. (Location 2643)