Darwin Awards: Survival of the Fittest by Northcutt Wendy

Author:Northcutt, Wendy [Northcutt, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gnv64
ISBN: 0452285720
Amazon: 0452285720
Publisher: Plume
Published: 2004-09-28T05:00:00+00:00

WOMEN: FEMALE FINALE 135

some cultures people form a line to reach a limited resource.

People who stand in line rely on newcomers to voluntarily stand behind them. The newcomer, however, would benefit from “cutting the line” near the front of the queue. What stops him? If too many people cheat, the alternative would be to cluster around the resource so that a newcomer would be unable to “cut.” On average the benefit of mutually agreeing to queue outweighs the downside of forming a disorganized cluster, and so the shared convention of the queue is born.

Because a single individual who breaks rules can otherwise reap personal benefits at the cost of community cohesion, there are social and legal sanctions against rule breakers. Line cutters are awarded public disapproval, a conditioning that begins in grammar school. Chronic convention-flouters are considered rude, and because we don’t like them or trust them, they are less likely to be granted the benefits of a shared community. Ostracism, an extreme form of social reprisal, is a powerful tool to control individual behavior, as are laws that directly impact a rule breaker’s property and freedom.

A meme is a unit of cultural information. While most social memes work in a protective, functional manner, some are dysfunctional. One example is intolerance toward those whose beliefs differ from one’s own. Such intolerance may act as a cohesive force in a small, closed community, but one can no longer avoid rubbing elbows with people whose beliefs are dramatically different, and it is necessary to coexist peacefully with them. Another example is the notion that hard work is more important than education. This idea is adequate for a community that needs more elbow grease than diplomas, but in our current society, rich in information and full of labor-

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