Blame Games

I was in the middle of some other posts... but this one was related to the subject matter and a bit more precise:

A discovery news blip on how humans react to problems. Does this sound like a lot of emails lately? I believe people on both sides of some Fedora issues could point out quite a few.

=== From the article ===

Why is blame our default setting? Morewedge said there could be several reasons, but a big one is that unexpected events are difficult to predict. And unpredictable things can be scary. That's why it can feel safer to assume that negative events are due to some external thing so you can avoid being harmed again. Morewedge said more awareness of this phenomenon could lead to better human relations.

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The human brain is filled with lots of short circuits that do things like this. When we have made up our mind on something, we only want to listen to people who agree with us.. and will go to great lengths to drive out or disregard those that don't.

Basically we as a species have not progressed much further than the opening of 2001. Our mailing lists become re-enactments of picking up bones and waving them around like the primitive beasts that we so desperately hide in ourselves (hmmm too much Werner Herzog).

However, its not all a loss.. German nihilist existentialism only gets you so far in a day. People can work together if they want to. They can compromise, find common things they enjoy and get along. Or they can leave and find happiness elsewhere. Staying around because you think you can change or will change others is just so much battered nerd syndrome.

Other interesting articles:

Bruce Schneier on terrorism failures

Partisan Brain Studies