W: another brilliant essay on what’s really going on. Being but one node in the larger net(s), it’s hard for me to “see” the topology. You have a way of finding or making the “traceroutes” in many knowledge topologies. Highly interesting and useful to change how we look at what’s going on around us all. Which is transformative.
Blast from Past: self-imposed prisons, indeed. I share your puzzlement at what possible evolutionary advantage there could be, in a pity-resentment feedback loop. Speculating wildly, the narrative (to self or peers) about “victimhood” (a) is efficient (“they did it to me/us”) and (b) selectively overcomes moral inhibition to capture resources (“we’re just taking back what they stole/hurting them the way they hurt us”). Which, until the rest of suffering humanity recognizes the threat and responds to it, can produce lopsided gains from aggression. Just a thought.