Anger and Psychological, Physical Threats

But speaking of the evolution. Anne Kreamer writes:

“Anger is a biologically driven response to threat. When threatened, we release the hormone epinephrine, followed by norepinephrine (noradrenaline), prepping the body to react – increasing our heart rate and blood pressure, and narrowing our focus as we prepare to flight or flee. And this is what is at the crux of the issue for modern homo sapiens in the workplace: pretty much as they did 200,000 years ago, our bodies continue to automatically process psychological threats as physical threats. Deep inside we are all irredeemably very old school. But the reality is that reacting to a psychological threat with a physical response is wildly inappropriate. And this disconnect – this evolutionary lag in the development of more emotionally calibrated or sophisticated responses to psychological challenges – is a huge contributor to what makes navigating modern life so incredibly hard.”

Just whack the bastards… The fallacy of the modern culture is that we talked ourselves into thinking that the “small psychological threats” and acts are not lethal. There is always a second chance, the support of the maternally nourishing state, the optimism religion, etc. But it turns out that the threats and the action are indeed lethal while or instincts to respond in kind are suppressed. The modern world is unfair not because of the inequality or the injustice but because our hands are tied to respond in kind to the lethal injury and we are often trapped to flee.

Tagged as: culture, evolution, ideas, psychology