[MUD-Dev] RE:

[rayzam]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bobby Martin" <bobbymartin at hotmail.com>

>> From: Jeff Cole <jeff.cole at mindspring.com>

>> I find this exchange is very interesting.  Marian is correct that
>> Raph's statement is too general to be useful, but Marian and
>> Raph's arguments both betray a common misunderstanding: that
>> while Sex is a driving force of human nature, violence is not.
>> Indeed, the stronger argument is that human behavior is the
>> driving force of violence.  The distinction is important and not
>> semantic.

>> That Sex, the desire to reproduce, is a prime mover of human
>> behavior is obvious insofar as one subscribes to the theory of
>> evolution.  We refer to one's "sex-drive" and our bodies undergo
>> drastic physical, chemical and emotional changes in order to
>> accommodate this drive throughout our lives.

>> The same is not true of violence.  In nature, violence is rarely
>> a prime mover and almost always a response to some other urge or
>> appetite.  Even for humans, what appears on the surface to be
>> violence for violence's sake is arguably violence motivated by
>> more complex appetites.

> I would like to make an observation here...  Violence may not be a
> prime mover in nature, but playing at violence is.  Young
> creatures of all kinds play in ways that are emulations of their
> response to violence.  Fox cubs bite and wrestle with each other,
> rabbits play tag, etc.  I think the reasons why the inclination to
> practice one's response to violent behavior is a positive survival
> characteristic (and thus selected for in nature) are pretty
> obvious.  

To make another note onto this one, the reason young creatures play
is often to practice/learn 2 things: sex [attracting a mate,
nesting, or any other related behaviors] and social interaction, in
the sense of determineing standing, hierarchy, posturing,
submission, etc. By learnign these social interaction behaviors,
true violence is often avoided. However, I do think that we don't
have a good term for the violence/hierarchy/social
interaction-drive, like we do for 'sex-drive', which includes
attracting a mate, gaining a mate, sexual initiation, nesting,
child-rearing, and more.  So perhaps 'violence' isn't the same
category as 'sex-drive', but it may be the same level of motivating
force in behavior, with a small lack of semantics.

    rayzam
    www.retromud.org

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