Bigotry and the In-Group

The human mind has developed over two million years of hominid evolution. It developed to divide people into two groups: the in-group and the out-group. When animals go about the process of surviving in the world, they must deal with competition. And interspecies competition, competition between different species can be intense. Lions and hyenas both want to eat wildebeests for instance. But only one species competes with a species on all the same things and in the same manner. And that is other members of one’s own species. Intraspecies competition is much more intense than interspecies competition.

And so humans need to know, as quickly as they can manage, is that human over there one of us or one of them?

Bigotry is not acceptable as a part of a functioning society. But this underlying set of systems in our brains are the source of and create all bigotry. It is misuse of a two million year old system designed for a world of small tribal groups that no longer exists. But our minds don’t know that world is gone. And so we have to square that circle. We must make our thinking work for a world that is much more crowded and much more connected than ever before.

NOTE: This is not an excuse for bigotry. This is not a get out of jail free card for bigots. These are musings on the origin of bigotry with a mind to eradicate or to control it.