that's not at all how it works.
You are trying to apply conscious choices and decisions to a deep-seated, unconscious, biological mechanism. Or, to put it another way, you're looking at it from the point of view of the individual. This isn't chaos theory, the effect of an individual's behaviour is essentially meaningless.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 22 Sep 2010, 10:08, 1 reply, 15 years ago)

It could just be that I'm stupid
but I'm failing to see the point you're making. If it doesn't affect conscious choices and decisions (I assume you mean that instead it shapes the minds that make those decisions so we are predisposed down a certain way) then how can we be aware it's functioning.
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Wed 22 Sep 2010, 10:17, Reply)

It's not that you're in any way stupid
it's a fucking difficult concept to understand let alone explain.

We aren't aware it is functioning on any meaningful level because its timescales of action are so long. "pack mentality" is a species working co-operatively, and it's how this species has always functioned.

The simplest way I can think to explain it is, say you were carrying a gene that made you work totally and completely outside the pack, you'd need that gene to, over many many generations, show itself to be more useful to the species than a "pack" gene. Which, really, couldn't happen now when you think about how intrinsic in society the pack system is.

Incidentally, we do sometimes get people who (possibly for genetic reasons) are predisposed to act against the pack. We generally call them sociopaths, and they usually die in prison, which limits their breeding possibilities*

*TMB apologises for this sweeping and faintly ridiculous simplification of sociopathic behaviour from a "nature vs nurture" argument
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Wed 22 Sep 2010, 10:28, Reply)

I do see the point now
though sociopaths are hardly the only people who show a lack of pack mentality. After all having a gene that made you an unpack animal still wouldn't mean that you'd necessarily live/breed outside the pack, especially if born in it.

Thanks for the clearness of the explanation.
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Wed 22 Sep 2010, 10:52, Reply)