they’d find other ways to kill each other. that’s not facetious—our egos depend on getting an edge, however microscopic, over others, and when that doesn’t happ

they’d find other ways to kill each other. that’s not facetious—our egos depend on getting an edge, however microscopic, over others, and when that doesn’t happen, we get angry (that is, desperate and irrational) and do things we shouldn’t. it’s a tale as old as time. that ‘modern’, ‘developed’ civilizations haven’t devolved this way yet isn’t because we’re all so cultivated now, but because we’ve lived in an unusual period of extended growth and excessive abundance which keeps destructive competition at bay. but infighting (i.e., tribalism) has been rising over the past 50+ years and is threatening to overthrow that period of prosperity and civility.