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But if the stress response is such a marvelous tool for self defense,
why is it so disabling? Why do stress reactions shut down our thought
processes, cripple our immune system, and occasionally turn us into
stupefied blobs of jelly? How do these impairments help us survive?
The answer: they don't. Men and animals do not merely struggle
to maintain their individual existence. They are members of larger social
groups. And all too often, it is the social unit, not the individual, whose
survival comes first.
At first glance, our dependence on our fellow human beings
sounds encouragingly angelic. But it is a blessing with a barb. Harvard
psychologist Daniel Goleman, paraphrasing Nietzsche, says
"Madness...is the exception in individuals, but the rule in groups."3 A
study by social psychologist Bryan Mullen shows that the larger the
lynch mob the more brutal the lynching.4 Freud declares that groups are
"impulsive, changeable and irritable." Those caught up within them, he
asserts, can become infantile slaves to emotion, "led almost exclusively
by the unconscious."5 Swept up by the emotions of a crowd, humans
tend to lose their ethical restraints. As a result, the greatest human evils
are not those that individuals perform in private--the tiny transgressions
against some arbitrary social standard we call sins. The ultimate evils
are the mass murders that occur in revolution and war, the large-scale
savageries that arise when one agglomeration of humans tries to
dominate another. They are the deeds of the social group.
The social pack, as we shall see, is a necessary nurturer. It gives us
love and sustenance. Without its presence, our mind and body literally
switch on an arsenal of interior devices for self-demolition. If we ever
save ourselves from the scourge of mass violence, it will be through the
efforts of millions of minds, networked together in the collaborative
processes of science, philosophy, and movements for social change. In
short, only a group effort can save us from the sporadic insanities of the
group.
<< < GO > >>
12
12
But if the stress response is such a marvelous tool for self defense,
why is it so disabling? Why do stress reactions shut down our thought
processes, cripple our immune system, and occasionally turn us into
stupefied blobs of jelly? How do these impairments help us survive?
The answer: they don't. Men and animals do not merely struggle
to maintain their individual existence. They are members of larger social
groups. And all too often, it is the social unit, not the individual, whose
survival comes first.
At first glance, our dependence on our fellow human beings
sounds encouragingly angelic. But it is a blessing with a barb. Harvard
psychologist Daniel Goleman, paraphrasing Nietzsche, says
"Madness...is the exception in individuals, but the rule in groups."3 A
study by social psychologist Bryan Mullen shows that the larger the
lynch mob the more brutal the lynching.4 Freud declares that groups are
"impulsive, changeable and irritable." Those caught up within them, he
asserts, can become infantile slaves to emotion, "led almost exclusively
by the unconscious."5 Swept up by the emotions of a crowd, humans
tend to lose their ethical restraints. As a result, the greatest human evils
are not those that individuals perform in private--the tiny transgressions
against some arbitrary social standard we call sins. The ultimate evils
are the mass murders that occur in revolution and war, the large-scale
savageries that arise when one agglomeration of humans tries to
dominate another. They are the deeds of the social group.
The social pack, as we shall see, is a necessary nurturer. It gives us
love and sustenance. Without its presence, our mind and body literally
switch on an arsenal of interior devices for self-demolition. If we ever
save ourselves from the scourge of mass violence, it will be through the
efforts of millions of minds, networked together in the collaborative
processes of science, philosophy, and movements for social change. In
short, only a group effort can save us from the sporadic insanities of the
group.
<< < GO > >>