Steven Pinker -- How the Mind Works - Hampshire High Italian ...

Family Values 429deplore it. And people everywhere take steps to reduce violent conflict,such as sanctions, redress, censure, mediation, ostracism, and law.I hope this discussion strikes you as trite, so 1 can get on with thecontent of the chapter. My goal is not to convince you that people don'talways want the best for one another, but to try to explain when and whythat should be true. But sometimes the trite has to be stated. The observationthat conflict is part of the human condition, banal though it is,contradicts fashionable beliefs. One is expressed in the gluey metaphorof social relations as attachment, bonding, and cohesion. Another is theassumption that we unthinkingly play out the roles society assigns to us,and that social reform is a matter of rewriting the roles. I suspect that ifyou pressed many academics and social critics you would find views noless Utopian than those of Charles Reich.If the mind is an organ of computation engineered by natural selection,our social motives should be strategies that are tailored to the tournamentswe play in. People should have distinct kinds of thoughts andfeelings about kin and non-kin, and about parents, children, siblings,dates, spouses, acquaintances, friends, rivals, allies, and enemies. Let'sexplore them in turn.KITH AND KINSmile on your brother, sang the Youngbloods; a brotherhood of man, sangJohn Lennon. When we talk of beneficence, we use the language of kinship.Our father who art in heaven; the fatherhood of God; churchfathers; Father Christmas; father figure; patriotism. The mother country;the mother church; Mother Superior; motherhood and apple pie; maternal.Blood brothers; black brothers; brothers-in-arms; brotherly love;temple brotherhoods; brethren; fraternities; Brother, can you spare adime? Sisterhood is powerful; sister cities; soul sisters; sisters of mercy;sororities. The family of man; crime families; one big happy family.The kinship metaphors have a simple message: treat certain people askindly as you treat your blood relatives. We all understand the presupposition.The love of kin comes naturally; the love of non-kin does not.That is the fundamental fact of the social world, steering everything fromhow we grow up to the rise and fall of empires and religions. The explanationis straightforward. Relatives share genes to a greater extent than