This
is a response, explained by a Yale professor, of societies to a situation where
there is inadequate policing. The men, who have more testosterone coursing
around their body, develop an irrational response of extreme violence to the
mildest provocation – this is actually a ‘rational’ response: the idea being –
if I become irrational, then people would not want to mess with me and I will
get to have my own way all the time!
The
downside to this attitude would be – it does not foster co-operation and
results in the ‘elites’ living in their isolated little tower getting
increasingly paranoid and trying to exert more and more ‘control’. Social
creatures like primates need interaction to grow and develop – and risk
stagnating by suppressing the ‘majority of the great unwashed’.
Applying
the above ideas to Guyana, the bullies who become ‘big fishes in little ponds’
are definitely not capable of formulating any long-term plan as their brains
are wired for quick short-term gains and maintaining the status quo. The first
paragraph also throws some light on the seemingly high incidence of Intimate
Partner Violence: a man can bully his wife and children in response to the
pressure he himself feels as there are no social recourses to adjudicate on the
unfairness of the external situation he may feel under. The downside is…the family as a unit becomes
dysfunctional and breeds children permanently on the defensive, perpetuating
the downward spiral and resulting in a society unable move co-operatively
forward.
Okay if we were not
living an increasingly shrinking Global Village but as Thomas Friedman said in
his book ‘The Lexus and the Olive Tree’ – opting out of wearing The Golden
Straitjacket (accepting norms of the developed world such as transparency)
means you don’t get to ride the Information SuperHighway and get left behind
wallowing in backwardsness – my words not his!
