Dark Nature: A Natural History of Evil by Watson Lyall

Author:Watson, Lyall [Watson, Lyall]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Endeavour Press Ltd.
Published: 2013-11-11T00:00:00+00:00

Five: The Wages of Sin: The Psychology of Evil

It is difficult for an untrained, unarmed human being to kill another. We are not designed for it. Our claws and teeth just aren't up to the job. Compared to most predators, we are woefully inadequate; and yet we have managed to become the world's most dangerous animal, thanks to technological accessories that carry us well beyond organic evolution. Culture has swamped and over taken basic biology, giving us an extraordinary capacity for mutual destruction, without the inhibitions that accompany most carnivores' possession of their formidable natural weaponry.

Real violence is rare in nature, a last resort. Most species settle for something less. Sometimes a threat will do, even one made by proxy. Grizzly bears put their territorial claw marks as high up the trunk of a tree as they can reach, standing on tiptoe, giving intruding males pause for thought. And even when rivals meet face to face, there are rules which govern such encounters and these are remarkably unambiguous. Each participant knows exactly what constitutes aggression and, just as important, what constitutes submission—and both know where to draw the line and how to walk it with precision.

Our species specializes in being unspecialized. All we really have going for us is a restless exploratory nature and, given our lack of personal arms, an astonishing amount of self-assurance. We are the apes with attitude. Pushy primates with just enough of the right kind of aggression, but not quite enough of the inhibitors necessary to keep us out of trouble. We seem to take pleasure in taking risks, finding fun in testing the limits defined by the line between aggression and submission—even if it sometimes ends in tears.

"A little bit of violence never hurt anyone" according to a recent graffito on the streets of London. And strangely, that may well be true. British psychologist Peter Marsh makes an important distinction between real violence and what he describes as the illusion of violence. "Because we don't understand aggression," he suggests, "and because we fail to realize that it might have a variety of consequences-some of which can be socially useful-we find it increasingly difficult to manage the process." We miss the point, we lay blame in the wrong quarter and end up with something far more sinister. The constructive social violence he has in mind is aggro—a uniquely British term for a widespread technique of expressing aggression in a relativeless harmless way.

"Aggro" comes from aggravation and has its origin in the sort of boundary and dominance disputes that leave rival male chimpanzees with all their hair erect, hooting, screaming and glaring at one another, arms waving over their heads, and feet stamping on the ground. All that description lacks to make it an accurate one of human behavior in the same circumstances is the addition of a rich repertoire of vocal insults and some appropriate flags or banners.

At the Circus Maximus in ancient Rome, 200,000 spectators (twice the number possible at Wembley or the Houston

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