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AR 23:28 - Sorting out sin and shame
In this issue:
SIN - "Evolution made me do it"
+ "My neurobiology made me do it"
+ "The Internet made me do it"
Apologia Report 23:28 (1,394)
August 29, 2018
SIN
In the August 2018 issue of National Geographic (pp17-19) evolutionary anthropologist Agustin Fuentes (Edmund P. Joyce Professor of Anthropology at Notre Dame) asks: "Are We as Awful as We Act Online?" The subtitle answers: "It's not brutish human nature that prompts nasty posts and tweets, but how we evolved plays a role."
Fuentes summarizes the situation: "The internet is a particularly volatile place of late. Aggression on social media has reached such a pinnacle of acrimony that some U.S. House members proposed designating an annual 'National Day of Civility.' The proposal drew civil responses - but also tweets and posts of wrath, ridicule, and profanity." The sidebar "Lobbing hostile language online" (p18) notes that "nearly nine out of 10 [in a Pew Research Center study] said <www.pewrsr.ch/2wksYBG> the anonymity online provides cover for vicious and harassing behavior."
"I would argue that the increase in online aggression is due to an explosive combination of this human evolutionary social skill set, the social media boom, and the specific political and economic context in which we find ourselves - a combination that's opened up a space for more and more people to fan the flames of aggression and insult online.
"Let me explain. We've all heard the diet-conscious axiom 'You are what you eat.' But when it comes to our behavior, a more apt variation is 'You are whom you meet.' How we perceive, experience, and act in the world is intensely shaped by who and what surround us on a daily basis - our families, communities, institutions, beliefs, and role models. ...
"But the 'who' that constitutes 'whom we meet' in this system has been changing. ...
"We live in complicated societies structured around political and economic processes that generate massive inequality and disconnection between us. ...
"Anonymity and the lack of face-to-face interaction on social media platforms remove a crucial part of the equation of human sociality - and that opens the door to more frequent, and severe, displays of aggression. ...
"Yes, it seems that the world is getting more aggressive, but that's not because we are aggressive at our core. It's because we haven't been stepping up, in unison, to do the difficult social work our contemporary world demands. That means standing up against bullying, abuse, and aggressive harassment, and fostering pro-social attitudes and actions. In person and on social media, we must do both." <www.on.natgeo.com/2NggEc9>
The Science of Sin: Why We Do the Things We Know We Shouldn't, by Jack Lewis [1] -- the promo explains that this book "brings together the latest findings from neuroscience research to shed light on the universally fascinating subject of temptation - where it comes from, how to resist it and why we all succumb from time to time. [N]eurobiologist Jack Lewis <drjack.co.uk> illuminates the neural battles between temptation and restraint that take place within our brains, suggesting strategies to help us better manage our most troublesome impulses with the explicit goal of improving our health, our happiness and our productivity."
According to Publishers Weekly (Jun 18 '18), "Lewis ... explores the brain activity behind the seven deadly sins of Christianity in this diverting but messily organized work of popular science. Each sin receives its own chapter exploring its treatment in a variety of world religions (Christianity receives the most thorough examination), accompanied by relevant insights from neuroscience research. ... Some of these scientific tidbits are intriguing and surprising, but they seem chosen for those qualities rather than to lay out a systematic argument. Lay readers would benefit from plain English about the geography of the brain.... After examining the sins, Lewis devotes a chapter to steps one might take to harness brain behavior to act more ethically.... People new to reading about neuroscience will be entertained, but those wanting to delve more deeply into the subject should look elsewhere."
Perhaps Sam Harris may gain a fresh perspective on sin as a result of being on the receiving end of flaming criticism from his atheist fans. More than likely, not a few will have been duped recently into thinking that Harris has adopted a Judaeo-Christian worldview. That's right. Here's the original of a video interview <www.bit.ly/2MSF9iD> between Dave Rubin and Harris. The flipped version may not be on the web for long, but it was convincingly edited <www.bit.ly/2wdc3AW> to fake his worldview change. The spoof suggests that Harris was influenced by his debates with Jordan Peterson <www.bit.ly/2MOKnfs> in recent months. It's enough to remind us all that digital "fact" is getting less reliable by the minute.
The following book reviews serve as a related reminder that today's online crisis of human nature is actually many years old. "Is technology moving humankind forward, or does the powerful reach of social media hearken back to the public floggings of the past?" This question begins the Booklist review (Mar 1 '15) of So You've Been Publicly Shamed, by Jon Ronson (whose online identity was stolen by three academics) [2] -- "a years-long exploration of humiliation via technology" in the lives of "both the people shamed and those who acted as instruments for their humiliation - about their motivations, what the experience did to them, and whether they recovered."
Kirkus (Feb 1 '15) notes that Ronson <jonronson.com> "takes a hard look at the dark side of shaming on social media." He "believes that via social media, we are creating a contemporary version of [Nathaniel] Hawthorne's Massachusetts Bay Colony, awarding scarlet letters with gleeful viciousness to people who often are more guilty of silliness and indiscretion than they are of any egregious social (or actual) felony. ... Among [the individuals in his case studies] are plagiarists and fabricators ..., a woman who tweeted an insensitive racial comment, a couple of guys in an audience who said noxious things overheard by a person nearby, and a woman who posted a photograph of herself making an obscene gesture at Arlington National Cemetery. Due to the swarms on social media, virtually all of these people lost their jobs, reputations and privacy. Digging into the backgrounds of these stories, Ronson unearths relevant information about shaming in the courtroom (a principal strategy employed by lawyers on both sides), the 'unshaming' process (and how it can be very effective with prison inmates), and psychological experiments that show the extent to which humans will go to shame others. [O]ur social media dark side grows ever darker when we believe we're superior to others - and anonymous."
More recently, there is Shame Nation: The Global Epidemic of Online Hate, by Sue Scheff <suescheff.com> with Melissa Schorr [3] -- Booklist (Sep 15 '17): "From 'sextortion' to cyberhumiliation, Scheff explains how shame happens, how to defend yourself online, how to weather the storm, and how to recover from attacks on your reputation. ... Scheff details many of the organizations and companies that have been created to combat the scourge of shame online while providing many case studies, stories of survival, and campaigns of support. There is a chapter on trolls, and how to deal with them, but little specifically dealing with the partisan political trolls poisoning our democracy. Parents will find the book's advice useful in protecting their children from danger as they explore online, as will anyone who has made a hasty comment or tweet and lived to regret it."
Library Journal (Sep 15 '17) finds it "primarily a self-help book for those who are facing an Internet scandal, or who are living through an online shaming campaign. The last few chapters include helpful hints and online resources for avoiding and dealing with scandals. The real interest here comes from the stories of others who have brought down scandal upon themselves ... featuring trolls, sex-related embarrassment, mistakes caught on tape, swatting, and fat shaming. ... The book does not dwell on the psychological or sociological aspects of trolling or shaming, emphasizing practical advice instead. With a foreword by Monica Lewinsky, this would be a good read for anyone who enjoyed Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed. Verdict A fun and scary collection of Internet wrongdoings, with some helpful advice on how to avoid them."
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SOURCES: Monographs
1 - The Science of Sin: Why We Do the Things We Know We Shouldn't, by Jack Lewis (Bloomsbury Sigma, 2018, paperback, 304 pages) <www.amzn.to/2BM4Ixp>
2 - So You've Been Publicly Shamed, by Jon Ronson (Riverhead, 2016, paperback, 336 pages) <www.amzn.to/2MxOMUz>
3 - Shame Nation: The Global Epidemic of Online Hate, by Sue Scheff and Melissa Schorr (Sourcebooks, 2017, hardcover, 352 pages) <www.amzn.to/2BMrzJp>
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