The First Chapter of Part 1 - Warriors:
"The world is filled with dangers. Understanding the dangers that faced early humans is critical to understanding the kinds of specific problems that men and women faced and the solutions they needed."
Evolution shaped the human mind as a toolkit for dealing with ancestral dangers.
"From an evolutionary perspective, humans who died too young left no children and thus could not pass on their genes. We are the children of those who survived long enough to reproduce and care for us. If boys and girls very early in life find different problems attractive, and create different types of solutions, then this suggests an innate sex-typed guidance system for survival."
The claim that boys and girls, very early in life, find different problems attractive and create different types of solutions will be elaborated in this book.
"The lives of early humans were particularly complicated compared with those of most other mammals. One way in which humans differ from other animals is that we kill each other in large numbers all around the world. So to keep children alive, humans have to cope with their fellow killer humans . This requires some degree of confrontation. Just staying away doesn’t work well, because the enemy is likely to go after you, if not this time, then the next."
In this sense, one cannot simply opt out; the game must be played.
"This problem can best be solved by delegating fighting the enemy to one specific group: young men. Women can then protect themselves and their children. Older men can supervise from a distance. Young men should fight the enemy in a location as far away as possible from everyone else."
In societies generally, young men serve as the primary fighting force of a community or group.
Evolution shaped the human mind as a toolkit for dealing with ancestral dangers.
"From an evolutionary perspective, humans who died too young left no children and thus could not pass on their genes. We are the children of those who survived long enough to reproduce and care for us. If boys and girls very early in life find different problems attractive, and create different types of solutions, then this suggests an innate sex-typed guidance system for survival."
The claim that boys and girls, very early in life, find different problems attractive and create different types of solutions will be elaborated in this book.
"The lives of early humans were particularly complicated compared with those of most other mammals. One way in which humans differ from other animals is that we kill each other in large numbers all around the world. So to keep children alive, humans have to cope with their fellow killer humans . This requires some degree of confrontation. Just staying away doesn’t work well, because the enemy is likely to go after you, if not this time, then the next."
In this sense, one cannot simply opt out; the game must be played.
"This problem can best be solved by delegating fighting the enemy to one specific group: young men. Women can then protect themselves and their children. Older men can supervise from a distance. Young men should fight the enemy in a location as far away as possible from everyone else."
In societies generally, young men serve as the primary fighting force of a community or group.
"men and women [are] designed to confront different problems. These problems are reflected in the fears of young boys and girls."
At this point, the argument becomes particularly interesting.
"What do boys fear? Based upon my years of study of children and, more recently, adults, I believe that boys’ and men’s specialty is worrying about enemies. The enemy is their problem, and it is their responsibility to defeat it. Because the enemy is not always present, boys and men don’t worry all the time. Nonetheless, I believe that confronting the problem of the enemy has allowed human males to evolve a whole suite of instinctive reactions that still exist today."
Threats exert influence through anticipation, not just encounter:
"Does this focus on the enemy appear only under direct threat? Absolutely not; one must be prepared before the threat arrives."
Joyce Benenson expresses admiration for the warrior spirit:
"There is no one I admire more than the undergraduate students in my course on warfare who are planning to enter the US armed forces. They stand up in front of my class and profess with deep humility and dignity their willingness to die for all of us, to die to keep the United States and its allied countries free from the enemy. Should an enemy attack, my life and the lives of every person I love depend on these young, proud, brave, mostly male future combatants."
From an early age, boys engage in fighting behavior:
"Most little boys enjoy play fighting. Play fighting is often called “rough-and-tumble play” in the objective wording of the biological and psychological literatures. This of course disguises its basic quality: fighting and loving it. In fact, the only way to distinguish play fighting from real fighting is the laughter and lack of anger that accompany the “play” version. By the time little boys are old enough to interact enjoyably with one another, toward the end of infancy, play fighting is one of their favorite activities."
The observation of fighting is also enjoyed by boys and men:
"Even boys who do not feel comfortable with actual play fighting because they are less sociable, smaller, or less coordinated than other boys still enjoy observing it from a distance or engaging in it virtually through computer or video games, or in former days, books. The enjoyment that play fighting provides continues well into adolescence and even in some places into adulthood."
Men display a particular preoccupation with their enemies:
"Whereas other animals prefer their own group to another group, there is no evidence to show that they actively contemplate the destruction of the enemy. Of course, male chimpanzees, with their regular territorial patrols and proven obliteration of all members of a neighboring community, may resemble humans. They may have an enemy. What seems clear, however, is that human males are fairly unique in having a category that goes beyond simple differentiation of their own group from another group. The enemy can be conceptualized and localized: It seeks to destroy one’s own group. It comes not only in human form but in other forms too."
How is the enemy characterized?
"The enemy wakes people in the night. The enemy lives to destroy you and all that you love. It is human males’ job to stop it. What attracts males to enemies and young men to fighting the enemy is the strong belief that some beings are just evil and will stop at nothing to destroy good people."
Boys may be preoccupied with the idea of an enemy even when no actual enemy exists:
"It is surprising how quickly enemies become a target of young boys’ play fighting. Of course, when a real enemy appears, he takes center stage in everyone’s life. But nothing shows as strongly how much little boys are attracted to enemies as when there is no actual enemy. When there are no real enemies, boys invent them."
Weapons play a central role in fighting an enemy:
"war play against the enemy begins around the same time as boys’ attraction to weapons."
Guns strongly fascinate boys:
"I, personally, have never met a boy who wasn’t spellbound by a gun or anything that resembled it."
Engaging in enemy detection and combat has been evolutionarily adaptive:
"Over several million years, those men whose brains specialized in detecting and fighting enemies were more likely to survive to pass on their genes to their sons."
To gain a glimpse into the psychology of young males:
"young boys across the world show the same fascination with and responsibility for defeating the enemy."
Status hierarchies form early and are closely linked to fighting ability:
"The quest to dominate other males begins as early as children begin to interact. Very young boys, when put together, will start competing very quickly and will soon sort themselves out into a dominance hierarchy. The biggest and most aggressive child can beat the second-biggest and aggressive child who beats the third-biggest and most aggressive child, and so forth. It starts in toddlerhood with struggles over valued objects, territorial rights, play fighting, and even speech forms and continues to interactions with make-believe enemies."
Boys engage in verbal status displays and contests:
"When speaking to one another, young boys issue directives, command others, insult them, tell jokes at others’ expense, ignore what someone else just said, disagree with another’s point, call one another names, brag, tell stories highlighting their own accomplishments, curse, threaten others, use direct statements, and generally behave in a domineering fashion toward one another."
Interestingly, males show a strong capacity for reconciliation:
At this point, the argument becomes particularly interesting.
"What do boys fear? Based upon my years of study of children and, more recently, adults, I believe that boys’ and men’s specialty is worrying about enemies. The enemy is their problem, and it is their responsibility to defeat it. Because the enemy is not always present, boys and men don’t worry all the time. Nonetheless, I believe that confronting the problem of the enemy has allowed human males to evolve a whole suite of instinctive reactions that still exist today."
Threats exert influence through anticipation, not just encounter:
"Does this focus on the enemy appear only under direct threat? Absolutely not; one must be prepared before the threat arrives."
Joyce Benenson expresses admiration for the warrior spirit:
"There is no one I admire more than the undergraduate students in my course on warfare who are planning to enter the US armed forces. They stand up in front of my class and profess with deep humility and dignity their willingness to die for all of us, to die to keep the United States and its allied countries free from the enemy. Should an enemy attack, my life and the lives of every person I love depend on these young, proud, brave, mostly male future combatants."
From an early age, boys engage in fighting behavior:
"Most little boys enjoy play fighting. Play fighting is often called “rough-and-tumble play” in the objective wording of the biological and psychological literatures. This of course disguises its basic quality: fighting and loving it. In fact, the only way to distinguish play fighting from real fighting is the laughter and lack of anger that accompany the “play” version. By the time little boys are old enough to interact enjoyably with one another, toward the end of infancy, play fighting is one of their favorite activities."
The observation of fighting is also enjoyed by boys and men:
"Even boys who do not feel comfortable with actual play fighting because they are less sociable, smaller, or less coordinated than other boys still enjoy observing it from a distance or engaging in it virtually through computer or video games, or in former days, books. The enjoyment that play fighting provides continues well into adolescence and even in some places into adulthood."
Men display a particular preoccupation with their enemies:
"Whereas other animals prefer their own group to another group, there is no evidence to show that they actively contemplate the destruction of the enemy. Of course, male chimpanzees, with their regular territorial patrols and proven obliteration of all members of a neighboring community, may resemble humans. They may have an enemy. What seems clear, however, is that human males are fairly unique in having a category that goes beyond simple differentiation of their own group from another group. The enemy can be conceptualized and localized: It seeks to destroy one’s own group. It comes not only in human form but in other forms too."
How is the enemy characterized?
"The enemy wakes people in the night. The enemy lives to destroy you and all that you love. It is human males’ job to stop it. What attracts males to enemies and young men to fighting the enemy is the strong belief that some beings are just evil and will stop at nothing to destroy good people."
Boys may be preoccupied with the idea of an enemy even when no actual enemy exists:
"It is surprising how quickly enemies become a target of young boys’ play fighting. Of course, when a real enemy appears, he takes center stage in everyone’s life. But nothing shows as strongly how much little boys are attracted to enemies as when there is no actual enemy. When there are no real enemies, boys invent them."
Weapons play a central role in fighting an enemy:
"war play against the enemy begins around the same time as boys’ attraction to weapons."
Guns strongly fascinate boys:
"I, personally, have never met a boy who wasn’t spellbound by a gun or anything that resembled it."
Engaging in enemy detection and combat has been evolutionarily adaptive:
"Over several million years, those men whose brains specialized in detecting and fighting enemies were more likely to survive to pass on their genes to their sons."
To gain a glimpse into the psychology of young males:
"young boys across the world show the same fascination with and responsibility for defeating the enemy."
Status hierarchies form early and are closely linked to fighting ability:
"The quest to dominate other males begins as early as children begin to interact. Very young boys, when put together, will start competing very quickly and will soon sort themselves out into a dominance hierarchy. The biggest and most aggressive child can beat the second-biggest and aggressive child who beats the third-biggest and most aggressive child, and so forth. It starts in toddlerhood with struggles over valued objects, territorial rights, play fighting, and even speech forms and continues to interactions with make-believe enemies."
Boys engage in verbal status displays and contests:
"When speaking to one another, young boys issue directives, command others, insult them, tell jokes at others’ expense, ignore what someone else just said, disagree with another’s point, call one another names, brag, tell stories highlighting their own accomplishments, curse, threaten others, use direct statements, and generally behave in a domineering fashion toward one another."
Interestingly, males show a strong capacity for reconciliation:
"One of the most remarkable aspects of male biology is men’s willingness to set aside their competitive instincts in order to cooperate to defeat the enemy. Not only can boys and men engage in friendly but serious competition without destroying their friendship, but they can even try to kill one another, then make up later. Competition does not interfere with friendships in the way that it does for females."
Reconciliation among men makes sense because, alongside individual status striving, males must be able to form cohesive fighting groups in competition with other groups. This leads to Chapter 3: Male Friends – Recruiting a Fighting Force.
Reconciliation among men makes sense because, alongside individual status striving, males must be able to form cohesive fighting groups in competition with other groups. This leads to Chapter 3: Male Friends – Recruiting a Fighting Force.
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