Taboos' Buzzsaws

This adaptation of the popular “angry Turkish man playing cards” meme is Part 6 of my (late-to-kick-off, and purely unofficial) Black History Month series.

As a general rule, confronting the epic failures of dogma and deontology isn’t a comfortable experience for me. Especially in a public forum like Facebook where I can be sure that many of the people to whom I’m speaking are quite committed to the very ideas I’m challenging.

Why? I (as usual) suspect evolutionary psychology.

On the ancient savannas where homo sapien evolved, an individual’s failure to stick, physically and ideologically, with the group often meant ostracization and thereby, death. Safety lay in conforming to the group.

It makes sense, then, that we humans evolved a strong propensity to conform. The instinct is so strong, in fact, that failing, even inconspicuously, to conform to group values, norms, etc. often causes psychological discomfort.

I’d wager that the instinct to conform manifests most often as a tendency to avoid making people with whom we interact day-to-day feel uncomfortable.

We try not to offend people - our family, our friends, our coworkers. We generally commence new relationships with an eye toward cooperation, not antagonism.

In short:

it makes us feel uncomfortable to make other people feel uncomfortable.

That’s a huge part of being a human being.

I spend a great deal of time deliberately reminding people of realities that make them uncomfortable. This is particularly the case with respect to race.

For all the evolutionary reasons I just talked about, I don’t always relish walking willingly into that buzz saw of taboo and social contempt.

But sometimes, I really do enjoy it 😉