In-group and out-group.  La de dah.  The never ending manipulation of the fabric of human relations by alpha-male opportunists.

Conventional wisdum: Hate thy enemy and love thy neighbor.  Sniff deeply, and your own shit smells good.  No?  Try again, there you go.   Ahhhh!

Love thy Enemy is the great  commandment.  And the greatest of authors knew nothing of this molecule millennia ago. ->  A molecule that functions to glue group identity together.  It will make you love your in-group.  And it will make you hate your out-group.

Do you have any choice now that you know?  Enough to make you responsible for your actions, yes you do.

The Lucifer Effect.

Not long ago I watched a two hour talk by Philip Zimbardo recorded in the Bush Days.  Zimbardo did the famous Stanford Prison Experiment and he had the good fortune because of that to be on the Abu-Graib defense team and view ALL the evidence, and study the situation as he saw fit.

Were there bad apples or was there a bad barrel?

The barrel turned out to be very, very bad and the situation corrupted the average apple, making the situation rotten to the core.  Orders to humiliate prisoners came from Donald Rumsfeld.  If learning this makes you uncomfortable.  Don't worry.  Another molecule will make you forget.

90% of people are average apples and are putty in a manipulators hands.  10% can think for themselves.

Philip Zimbardo's talk was excellent.  I watched it from start to finish.  A delight to listen to.  Zimbardo did not talk about the molecule, he only talked about human behavior.  I added the molecule.  I learned about the molecule from Sopolski.



It is an old story.  Pointing out how it has been used in the past does not stop it from being used now.  The molecule makes sure of that.  People are eager slaves to the mind of one with higher rank.



  Go Team!