From: "Michael S. Lorrey" <retroman@together.net>
>I look at criminals as a natural phenomenon of the urban economic
>ecosystem. Individuals that are denied skills or opportunity to
>practice productive skills in the society will resort naturally to
>predatory economics, being economically carnivorous upon the
>assets of the members of the herd. It does not matter if the
>predator is an Ivan Boesky or John Dillinger, it is the same
>behavior. Just as with natural predators, criminals will develop
>a 'drug of choice' or preferred form of prey, which is why most
>criminals only practice one or two forms of crime.
I don't see this as purely economic, nor is it a matter of being denied skills or opportunity. I see it as primarily cultural, it is not mere coincidence that these levels of violence are prevalent in certain subcultures (neighborhoods). It doesn't take a genius to spot a gang-banger, it takes a clear head and a certain amount of gut's to do something about it, especially if it's your kid.
>Violent crime is similarly a form of repressed predation. Since in
>an urban environment, there is no other species besides humans,
>dogs, cats, and rats, you will get sociopathic individuals who
>will express their natural hunting urges first upon 'acceptable'
>species to prey upon, then marginally acceptable/unacceptable
>species (dogs and cats), then as the individual becomes more
>dislocated from society, they may prey upon the unacceptable prey
>species, humans. This progression is a visible indication of the
>progression of their mental illness, but the hunting urge is not
>the illness, merely how the illness expresses itself in an
>environment of a limited ecosystem.
I don't see any repression, this is clearly predator/prey behavior.
>This is one reason why I view the general urban/vegetarian fear of
>guns and gun owners as also an instinctual fear that the herbivore
>has for the carnivore. We as humans also have this instinct, which
>comes to the fore as we practice a vegetarian lifestyle, since we
>did evolve from vegetarian/scavengers who were preyed upon by many
>predators, including homo erectus, and the great cats. This fear,
>when it becomes the core of mental illness, is manifested in
>haplophobia, which is recognized in the literature as an
>irrational fear of guns. It is an illness of transference, as we
>have a natural fear of seeing the natural weapons of predators
>exhibited.
I think you have a good point here. Prey species do not want any non-prey species about.
>When attacked, a herbivore will tend to flee, while an omnivore
>will tend to stand and fight, which explains the whole debate over
>right-to-carry vs. no-right-to-carry concealed weapons, as it is
>merely a manifestation of the different viewpoints of the
>herbivorous (sublimated as an economic herbivore or as
>an actual vegetarian) humans who prefer to avoid and flee and that
>of the omnivorous humans who would prefer to stand and fight a
>predator, and would prefer to be equally matched to that predator
>in weaponry. Herbivorous humans, as herd creatures, will depend
>upon the 'tamed' few deviants they think they have control
>of (i.e. police/government) to protect them from the predators,
>but will also seek to disarm the omnivores due to misplaced
>association with the predators.
Fight, flight or for most urbanites, just plain fright.
Fighter, not a flight-er.
Brian
Member,Extropy Institute
www.extropy.org