© Roger M Tagg 2009 revised 2010
Welcome to FROLIO – a new attempt to merge philosophy and the "semantic web" . This website is under continuing development.
This essay is very much "first draft".
As a race, we humans, like dogs, wolves and horses, have instincts that lead us to form groups. Here are some ways in which this can show itself.
| Security of a gang | Exclusivity (we are in, they are out) | A common enemy to unite against | Cut down tall poppies |
| Laddishness, machismo |
A gang of course is not necessarily criminal or "bikie". Tribes, clans, sports teams, departments in companies etc are included here. Exclusivity is sometimes an undesirable effect of forming gangs. Some scaling down of one's private aims may be required to join a gang. The identification of a common enemy is quite frequent, e.g. the other team, another religion, another class etc. Sometimes leaders deliberately create an common enemy (e.g. Nazis blamed all ills on Jews). The tall poppy syndrome often occurs in gangs - people who appear "better" than average are not welcome; the result is that the gangs descend into mediocrity - definitely against the spirit of Good. Laddishness is a tendency that often occurs in gangs (for men especially, but nowadays we have laddettes as well) for members to behave aggressively and rudely, and not to consider the feelings of anyone else.
In Australia, laddishness is very prevalent - but to our credit, we also have "Tall Poppy Awards" for people who are prepared to try to be the best they can be.
Many of us have a tendency to want to escape from the mess we are in, rather than face it head-on.
| Substitute reality | Gambling | Drugging oneself | Workaholism as escape |
| Obsessive tidiness | Bumminess | A quiet life | Unreasoning hope in external agency |
One common escape route is to live through someone else's life rather than our own. Television soaps and gossip magazines are popular for this purpose, as are following reports about royalty and people in the news. Many parents live only through their children - one doesn't hear what the parents are doing or thinking. More serious escape routes are though gambling and drugs (including alcohol and tobacco). Similarly, the word "workaholic" carries the same connotation for escape through excessive devotion to one's work.
Obsessive tidiness can also be a form of escape - a substitute for facing the more important issues. Bumminess (my word) is nearly the opposite - I mean deliberately taking no pride in oneself and copping out in extreme laziness. By a quiet life, I mean cutting oneself off, and not wanting to face other people or the news. Some people entertain dreams that "something will turn up" and change everything - presumably without effort on their part.
Some people delight in going against the grain of rational thinking, and prefer "show, signs and symbols". It may be related to escapism, but there are some of us who have had enough of reality and hard logic, and prefer a fairy-tale world.
| Mystery, myths and miracles | Pseudo-scientific predictions | Crises (but not in my backyard) | Chatter, gossip |
| Dreaming the impossible | A simple explanation | Anti science and intellectuals |
There are many books and magazines these days that concentrate on the "para-normal". This could include miracles, visions, water divining, science fiction - even geological fiction such as dinosaurs and "ET". While all this may be good for encouraging a child's imagination, it does not always seem good for a responsible adult. However we have to accept that some adults (perhaps mostly women) do experience some form of "second sight". Many adults also like to be guided by what is written in astrology columns - some go further - Nancy Reagan had a private astrologer. A rational person might take the view that if you added up all the astrology columns together, they would give good advice for anyone at any time. However there are a lot of other forecasters practising their art, notably newspaper columnists (maybe at the request of their editors); of course there is silence when the time comes and the forecast was wrong. Sometimes it seems that official weather forecasters are no better than the crackpots.
People in this group also tend to like crises that they can agonize over, as long as they are not too near home. This leads on to chatter and gossip, which is more in the form of social lubrication than addressing the issue to any purpose. Dreaming the impossible goes together with all this, although management books and books on self-improvement are full of encouragement to do just that. People who take an anti-rational view tend to prefer simple explanations, even if totally unscientific, to the best that human experience has come up with. Finally, some people actively run down science and rational thinking. This may be because so much science is written about by academics for academics, despite the efforts of some TV channels. The men of science sometimes get cast as the "they" - or even as the common enemy!
It's quite common to come across people who spend their life looking for reasons why things don't go as well as they should, rather than learning from experience and doing better the next time.
| Excuse engineering | Martyrdom (poor me) | Self pride, self satisfaction | A "them" to blame |
The commonest example is the readiness to look for excuses first, and to examine oneself later, or not at all. Such folks may get into this as a pattern of "engineering" excuses for all eventualities, whereas they might do better aiming to succeed rather than fail. Martyrdom involves pushing the line that "I always get the bad luck", so forcing others to give them more leniency; it's much the same game as excuse engineering. Self-pride means refusing to admit that one hasn't got it right, or that one needs to seriously think. To maintain one's pride, the tendency is to indulge in bullshit, my favourite example being when a football team loses, the coach comes out with "we got a lot of positives from the match". Self-satisfaction is perhaps what happens when things are going OK, but you assume that this is because you are doing things right - you might not be evaluating if you could have done better. Having a "them" to blame is similar to what happens in a gang; here it is just used as another form of excuse.
It seems that many of us - particularly men - have an urge to hustle other people - the "while stocks last" syndrome.
| Power over others | Change for change's sake | Growth at all costs | Hoarding |
Hustling can be a means to power over other people - the idea is to force the other person into a defensive mode, but to dangle enough incentive. This can become a game, in which we hope to gain by being ahead of the rest - the "devil take the hindmost" of industrial Europe and unfettered capitalism. Capitalism seems to depend for success on keeping growth going continuously; in practice this happens for so long, then there is a reaction because the growth isn't sustainable, so some get caught in a bear market, while the hustlers have moved on. A characteristic of hustlers is to hoard valuables - not totally against all our instincts as ex hunter gatherers.
A few behaviour traits can probably be put down to our basic animal instincts, such as the examples below.
| Sensual gratification | Desire to mate | Broodiness | Collecting |
Sensual gratification includes more than just sexual excitement; we can also include a good meal, a good wine, good music and a good massage. The desire to mate comes on most of us at some time or other. Broodiness may follow - we want children to nurture, and if we don't have these, we may look for grandchildren, pets and family members whom we feel are our dependents. Broodiness probably goes along with the urge to make and maintain a nest. Collecting is similar to hoarding; sometimes we just save for a rainy day, but some of us go on to collector's mania - which might be classed as an escape!
This essay may explain some of the reasons why we have religions (see another essay on this subject). It also relates to emotional needs (yet another essay). I don't mean to imply that these tendencies are errors, or - if they are kept in balance - undesirable. We all have some of these tendencies, and it is better to recognize them and make allowances.
Index to more of these diatribes
Some of these links may be under construction – or re-construction.
This version updated on 30th January 2010
If you have constructive suggestions or comments, please contact the author rogertag@tpg.com.au .