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November 28, 2009
Pack mentality...
In reference to Tammy's murder and its cover-up, I'm often
asked how these people involved could keep a secret like this
for so many years.
I don't think the answer is too complicated.
I start with a simple premise, based upon the evidence:
The crime of homicide was committed by one person, the killer,
Eric Stukel. The killer involves other people, who assume,
rightly, that they might get in trouble for their illegal behavior
at the Stephenson farmhouse.
At this point, conscience and morality suppressors like
marijuana, alcohol, and other drugs are in play.
While higher-level function like compassion and empathy
become suppressed or twisted by these drugs, portions of the
limbic system, portions of the brain we share with our fury
mammalian third cousins, become highly active.
These portions of the limbic system control what some
instructors of Biology 101 refer to as the four Fs:
Feeding, fighting, fleeing and...procreation.
(The limbic system is very active in the human capacity toward
addictive and aberrant behavior.)
While a selfish instinct toward personal survival was at work
on the night of Tammy's murder, at some point individual
survival gave way to pack mentality.
Or to frame it another way, individuals realized that their own
personal survival would be better insured if they stuck with
the pack, if they conformed to group values and mores.
At this point, the limbic system was fully engaged, and so a
group of adolescents, who had not yet fully developed higher
mental functions like empathy and compassion, began behaving
like a pack of animals. The limbic system and social
conditioning (or lack thereof) told them that if they stuck
together as a pack, they could all survive with little or no
consequence, they could continue to avoid risk and keep
indulging in pleasurable behavior.
Yes, this is a very Darwinian explanation, but we are dealing
with very animal behavior here, the callous murder and
discarding of another human being...
And why? So the party could keep going...which it did.
That was seventeen years ago though.
Why has nobody come forward yet?
Perhaps, this has something to do with arrested-development
syndrome. Many young drugs users move into adulthood
without having developed a higher level of conscience.
By age twenty-four, the human brain should be completely
developed, yet there are still many out there who exhibit
childish and selfish behavior, slaves to their limbic systems.
Interestingly, most of the people involved in this cover-up have
survived long enough to pass on their genes -- to breed, if you
will. From a Darwinian standpoint, they have been highly
successful. They have been able to exploit an environment of
apathy, indifference and unaccountability -- they have found an
easy niche in which to survive and thrive and they have passed
their DNA onto the next generation.
If the model continues to hold, these values and instincts will
continue to get passed on and spread to future generations.
These values just won't get passed on through the generations
though, but also across current generations, because humans
have the capacity to learn from one another...
Thus these people will not just survive in their niche, but will
increase in number, and in so doing, they will push out
competitors and competing values -- virtues and virtuous
people, if you will.
In other words, if young people see they can get away with
indulging in vice and still thrive, what is to stop them from
replicating such behavior?
In other words, this instinctual, animal behavior has not just
been passed genetically, but has also been learned by others.
Some might say, while this theoretical framework might seem
good on the page, that's nice -- prove it.
And this is where we seem to run into a wall.
Those who participate in criminal behavior on a smaller scale
tend to be rather secretive -- bad behavior can't be diffused
across a larger populace, so must remain hidden.
Also, there seems to be a passive acceptance of this pack
behavior by the larger population -- think of the three wise
monkeys -- hear, see, speak no evil.
In other words, those who share the environment avoid
involvement to protect their own selfish interests.
A prime function of conspiratorial behavior is secrecy.
Or...nature loves camouflage and camouflaging behavior.
Again, this is all very Darwinian, all very animal.
Have your doubts?
This same behavior can be observed time and again elsewhere
upon the human landscape, throughout geography and history.
A return to childhood.
How many young people are taught not to tattle by their
parents, teachers, friends?
A young child is teased and beaten up on the playground of
(pick nearly any school.) Some participate in the bullying to fit
in with the pack, few in the wider pack admit to seeing a thing
for fear they will suffer a similar fate to bullied child.
This doesn't just happen with children, but also on the urban
landscape in nearly any major city in the world where drugs
are present.
A young child is cut down in a gang shootout.
Nobody in the neighborhood sees a thing.
Pick nearly any social framework -- small town, large town,
any town, anywhere, and this Darwinian behavior can be seen
in some form.
And on a more global scale...
The world witnesses genocide in Rwanda, in Darfur, in the
Congo, the list goes on and on. The world does nothing...or
when it does act, acts far too little and too late.
Closer to home, a young girl is savagely beaten and gang raped
at a California high school.
Many witness the crime.
Only one young person has the courage to report the behavior
to the police.
Too often, human behavior is animal behavior.
Or does this characterization denigrate animals unfairly?
Animals act on instinct: Humans should know better.
The good news is that there are heroes who go against the pack
mentality, that go against their baser instincts.
Some call these people snitches, narcs, Goody Two-shoes...
I call them evolved.
I call them heroes.
m.c. merrill
Next week, some good news -- the heroic mindset that each of us
could possess if we so choose.
Pack mentality...
In reference to Tammy's murder and its cover-up, I'm often
asked how these people involved could keep a secret like this
for so many years.
I don't think the answer is too complicated.
I start with a simple premise, based upon the evidence:
The crime of homicide was committed by one person, the killer,
Eric Stukel. The killer involves other people, who assume,
rightly, that they might get in trouble for their illegal behavior
at the Stephenson farmhouse.
At this point, conscience and morality suppressors like
marijuana, alcohol, and other drugs are in play.
While higher-level function like compassion and empathy
become suppressed or twisted by these drugs, portions of the
limbic system, portions of the brain we share with our fury
mammalian third cousins, become highly active.
These portions of the limbic system control what some
instructors of Biology 101 refer to as the four Fs:
Feeding, fighting, fleeing and...procreation.
(The limbic system is very active in the human capacity toward
addictive and aberrant behavior.)
While a selfish instinct toward personal survival was at work
on the night of Tammy's murder, at some point individual
survival gave way to pack mentality.
Or to frame it another way, individuals realized that their own
personal survival would be better insured if they stuck with
the pack, if they conformed to group values and mores.
At this point, the limbic system was fully engaged, and so a
group of adolescents, who had not yet fully developed higher
mental functions like empathy and compassion, began behaving
like a pack of animals. The limbic system and social
conditioning (or lack thereof) told them that if they stuck
together as a pack, they could all survive with little or no
consequence, they could continue to avoid risk and keep
indulging in pleasurable behavior.
Yes, this is a very Darwinian explanation, but we are dealing
with very animal behavior here, the callous murder and
discarding of another human being...
And why? So the party could keep going...which it did.
That was seventeen years ago though.
Why has nobody come forward yet?
Perhaps, this has something to do with arrested-development
syndrome. Many young drugs users move into adulthood
without having developed a higher level of conscience.
By age twenty-four, the human brain should be completely
developed, yet there are still many out there who exhibit
childish and selfish behavior, slaves to their limbic systems.
Interestingly, most of the people involved in this cover-up have
survived long enough to pass on their genes -- to breed, if you
will. From a Darwinian standpoint, they have been highly
successful. They have been able to exploit an environment of
apathy, indifference and unaccountability -- they have found an
easy niche in which to survive and thrive and they have passed
their DNA onto the next generation.
If the model continues to hold, these values and instincts will
continue to get passed on and spread to future generations.
These values just won't get passed on through the generations
though, but also across current generations, because humans
have the capacity to learn from one another...
Thus these people will not just survive in their niche, but will
increase in number, and in so doing, they will push out
competitors and competing values -- virtues and virtuous
people, if you will.
In other words, if young people see they can get away with
indulging in vice and still thrive, what is to stop them from
replicating such behavior?
In other words, this instinctual, animal behavior has not just
been passed genetically, but has also been learned by others.
Some might say, while this theoretical framework might seem
good on the page, that's nice -- prove it.
And this is where we seem to run into a wall.
Those who participate in criminal behavior on a smaller scale
tend to be rather secretive -- bad behavior can't be diffused
across a larger populace, so must remain hidden.
Also, there seems to be a passive acceptance of this pack
behavior by the larger population -- think of the three wise
monkeys -- hear, see, speak no evil.
In other words, those who share the environment avoid
involvement to protect their own selfish interests.
A prime function of conspiratorial behavior is secrecy.
Or...nature loves camouflage and camouflaging behavior.
Again, this is all very Darwinian, all very animal.
Have your doubts?
This same behavior can be observed time and again elsewhere
upon the human landscape, throughout geography and history.
A return to childhood.
How many young people are taught not to tattle by their
parents, teachers, friends?
A young child is teased and beaten up on the playground of
(pick nearly any school.) Some participate in the bullying to fit
in with the pack, few in the wider pack admit to seeing a thing
for fear they will suffer a similar fate to bullied child.
This doesn't just happen with children, but also on the urban
landscape in nearly any major city in the world where drugs
are present.
A young child is cut down in a gang shootout.
Nobody in the neighborhood sees a thing.
Pick nearly any social framework -- small town, large town,
any town, anywhere, and this Darwinian behavior can be seen
in some form.
And on a more global scale...
The world witnesses genocide in Rwanda, in Darfur, in the
Congo, the list goes on and on. The world does nothing...or
when it does act, acts far too little and too late.
Closer to home, a young girl is savagely beaten and gang raped
at a California high school.
Many witness the crime.
Only one young person has the courage to report the behavior
to the police.
Too often, human behavior is animal behavior.
Or does this characterization denigrate animals unfairly?
Animals act on instinct: Humans should know better.
The good news is that there are heroes who go against the pack
mentality, that go against their baser instincts.
Some call these people snitches, narcs, Goody Two-shoes...
I call them evolved.
I call them heroes.
m.c. merrill
Next week, some good news -- the heroic mindset that each of us
could possess if we so choose.
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