I just cherry-picked another conclusion from Sapolsky’s work.
The Keekorok troop, the one who lost it’s male leaders and lost the alpha structure and became more prosocial – and importantly, converted incoming single males to this affiliative mode – I was going with the first impression, that it’s possible, but there’s more.
It shows how it’s accomplished – accidental Russian or French Revolution for these baboons, the alpha and wannabe alphas were all killed, leaving a group of more affiliative folks in charge, and the group did not fall to a single incomer with dreams of leadership, group versus individual, group wins, just like we like to say. That was off the cuff though, the thing that got me typing was that it sort of proves how rarely we have managed that trick.
Where can a human male go, be welcomed and talked out of his violent, competitive dreams? Where on Earth is there not some evil ladder for him to climb? The aforementioned revolutions installed new hierarchies, but hierarchies nonetheless, leaders, citizens and intermediaries. Of course, the human home is also that model.
Jeff
Feb. 23rd., 2020
Abuse with an Excuse 