Ha ha, brilliant, I know, it sure is a complicated world 😂
As soon as I posted this I thought "what am I doing posting this craziness?" Trying to embrace out historical enemy is madness, but it's a beautiful madness, so I'm glad you love it.
Honestly I love it. Agree completely. Thought provoking. I am always thinking of the evolutionary roots of behaviors that don’t always make sense when we step away and analyze them. I had always chalked fandom up to tribal survival and limited resources. (Only so many buffalo in this valley for the one of our groups, so we’ll learn to hate you (even if you’re my cousin). To be comfortable in that hate, we will make up reasons about why it is justified. (Your rituals are all wrong, blasphemous even) Those survival methods of preserving tribe and giving identity and purpose to small communities to work together, engrained over so many generations, are what give us the desire to form those tribes and identities even if they aren’t needed or conducive to community or survival any longer. But what your article keys in on is the identity and intentionally creating differences to reinforce that identity… very very interesting.
That’s a fascinating comment Pappy! If you haven’t already you should definitely read the "The Dawn Of Everything" by Graeber and Wengrow. It’s a brilliant re-think of ancient human social, cultural and psychological motivations and the evolutionary roots of behaviour that you (and I for that matter) ponder so often.
They’ve got some really interesting ideas that challenge fundamental assumptions (often ideologically derived or based on Enlightenment assumptions about human motivations) about human behaviour and identity. For example, (and this is just my reading so take with a pinch of salt) they talk about identity being far less fixed than we often assume. Identity can be seasonally driven for example, so whilst a group may adhere to a certain personal identities and hierarchical structures during the summer (when primarily organised around a certain group of behaviours like hunting for example), they will change their relations and structures during winter when they’re focussed on a different set of behaviours.
Today, they say, we also have multiple identities (family, work, Arsenal fans, dog owners or whatever) but our current societal structures, with their central authorities, reduce our conscious, deliberate and collective capacity to change the way we organise ourselves and our group and individual identities. We’re more locked into narrative and stories that reduce our choices and determine our behavioural outcomes. That was what I was kinda getting at in the article.
Just want to say thanks too. I love the fact that AW brings out all kinds of musings and thoughts. I kind of envisaged when I started AW that I might talk about football and life and what it is to be a human, and I'm really grateful that there are wonderful readers like yourself Pappy engaging and enjoying my football/philosophical musings. Cheers mate!
I love this. And Tottenham are still shit! :)
Ha ha, brilliant, I know, it sure is a complicated world 😂
As soon as I posted this I thought "what am I doing posting this craziness?" Trying to embrace out historical enemy is madness, but it's a beautiful madness, so I'm glad you love it.
(whispers but yeah, they're still shit ;)
Honestly I love it. Agree completely. Thought provoking. I am always thinking of the evolutionary roots of behaviors that don’t always make sense when we step away and analyze them. I had always chalked fandom up to tribal survival and limited resources. (Only so many buffalo in this valley for the one of our groups, so we’ll learn to hate you (even if you’re my cousin). To be comfortable in that hate, we will make up reasons about why it is justified. (Your rituals are all wrong, blasphemous even) Those survival methods of preserving tribe and giving identity and purpose to small communities to work together, engrained over so many generations, are what give us the desire to form those tribes and identities even if they aren’t needed or conducive to community or survival any longer. But what your article keys in on is the identity and intentionally creating differences to reinforce that identity… very very interesting.
And also, Tottenham are shit.
That’s a fascinating comment Pappy! If you haven’t already you should definitely read the "The Dawn Of Everything" by Graeber and Wengrow. It’s a brilliant re-think of ancient human social, cultural and psychological motivations and the evolutionary roots of behaviour that you (and I for that matter) ponder so often.
They’ve got some really interesting ideas that challenge fundamental assumptions (often ideologically derived or based on Enlightenment assumptions about human motivations) about human behaviour and identity. For example, (and this is just my reading so take with a pinch of salt) they talk about identity being far less fixed than we often assume. Identity can be seasonally driven for example, so whilst a group may adhere to a certain personal identities and hierarchical structures during the summer (when primarily organised around a certain group of behaviours like hunting for example), they will change their relations and structures during winter when they’re focussed on a different set of behaviours.
Today, they say, we also have multiple identities (family, work, Arsenal fans, dog owners or whatever) but our current societal structures, with their central authorities, reduce our conscious, deliberate and collective capacity to change the way we organise ourselves and our group and individual identities. We’re more locked into narrative and stories that reduce our choices and determine our behavioural outcomes. That was what I was kinda getting at in the article.
Just want to say thanks too. I love the fact that AW brings out all kinds of musings and thoughts. I kind of envisaged when I started AW that I might talk about football and life and what it is to be a human, and I'm really grateful that there are wonderful readers like yourself Pappy engaging and enjoying my football/philosophical musings. Cheers mate!
New world order starting here!!
Yep, let's let the poets take over!