A recent symposium at Penn probed the causes, symptoms and solutions of ethnic warfare. Hunger, greed and lust bring groups into competition with one another. Desire expands human numbers, intensifying competition. Fear of violence stimulates violence. Frustration induces rage.
Mimesis causes mirror-image negative emotions.
Stereotype dualities dichotomize the social world. Individual will and consciousness submerge in crowd-psychology emotional contagion. Obedience to authority takes the place of conscience. Insular groups exhibit fierce internal cohesion. Konner, the Samuel Chandler Dobbs Professor of Anthropology and associate professor of psychiatry and neurology at Emory University, paused for a moment.