Stereotypes as an Innate Survival Instinct
There is a great deal of underappreciated wisdom in this all too important bit of advice and others like it. Alas, such insights are not only ignored but are even dismissed wholesale through scornful condemnation that is, ironically, exceedingly prejudicial, and maladaptively prejudicial at that. The prejudicial stereotypes that our society has against stereotypes are not only fallacious, but also dangerous.
As I will elaborate on more in [Chapter 7], a lot of criticism has been made in the last half century about the supposed invalidity of stereotypes, but such criticism is totally out of touch with basic reality. One of mankind’s most ancient stereotypes, engrained in our very DNA through adaptive scare impulses, is a fear of predatory animals that could do us harm. After multiple encounters with lions, for instance, in which they killed members of our tribe, including innocent children, we have come to understand that lions are a danger to our safety, and it is safer to simply stay away from them. We may not necessarily hold malice toward them, but we know that they hold no good will toward me and mine, and that at any moment any one of them could hurt or even kill me or any of the people I love and care about if they felt it in their advantage to do so or that they could get away with it. Our most ancient ancestors learned the hard way, through being preyed upon and killed, to defend ourselves against potential threats from sentient creatures, endowing us with the good sense to seek to stay away from such threats and empowering us with the will and skill to defend ourselves against a potential attack.
We, in the modern West, have been indoctrinated to let go of this essential understanding, only to be put at great danger as a result. We would do well to recall…