The more I study behavioral economics, the more I understand that people, at a fundamental level, are just wired to be tribal. Sometimes that takes the shape of all participating in a lovely charity. Sometimes that takes the shape of racism. (I ran across something a few years ago that said the people who gave most to charity tended to also be the most racist; because they're flip sides of the same coin. A major reason to tithe to your church is to strengthen your in-group.)
My philosophy is to just observe what is true and assume I'm going to have to live with reality. If people are tribal and they have intractable differences, there are only a few ways to solve that conflict. Incarceration, Genocide, Contracted Agreement.
We are currently doing Contracted Agreement (witness Al Gore not rising up a revolution against W's election results) and Incarceration. With genocide the go-to method of the 19th century America, and pretty much everywhere else in the 20th century, I have very little reason to think we wouldn't reach for it sometime in the 21st here again.
So I'm totally in favor of abiding by the terms of an election. Because I know what the alternative is.
My philosophy is to just observe what is true and assume I'm going to have to live with reality. If people are tribal and they have intractable differences, there are only a few ways to solve that conflict. Incarceration, Genocide, Contracted Agreement.
We are currently doing Contracted Agreement (witness Al Gore not rising up a revolution against W's election results) and Incarceration. With genocide the go-to method of the 19th century America, and pretty much everywhere else in the 20th century, I have very little reason to think we wouldn't reach for it sometime in the 21st here again.
So I'm totally in favor of abiding by the terms of an election. Because I know what the alternative is.
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