It's a long sad story, with the plot recycling itself through a million episodes... Detesting neighbours on one side seems to be as much a part of human civilization as flirting with the ones on the other.
People 'round the world differ little, in this regard at least; all exhibit some xenophobia in relations with their neighbors, infinitesimal though it may be.
The more minimal the differences, the more vociferous the protestations of hatred that are necessary to point them up... Behaviourists belabour the point until it colours, often performing the wonderful human dance of self-obfuscation themselves.
My contumacious contention is that first we establish our dislike, perhaps on the basis of a pheromonal 'aura,' and then, and only then, do we set our fore-brains to the task of 'rationalizing' what is now patent and indisputable reality. Talk about "ad hominem!" My theorem may falter somewhat in the face of the fact that the dislike of a stranger may occur without opportunity to smell them... perhaps their words, look or actions suggest some particularly odious foreign scent? Perhaps they seem as though they should smell of rotting cabbage, brain-stem rousing territorial boundary scats or, more to the point perhaps, of something not apparent to the conscious mind... How about those androstenones that so many males produce, insensible to their own beezers?
Our effect on others may go deeper than we think. Don't worry, you're likely safe enough down all that wire.
The through-put capacity of the sensory links twixt the vomeral nasal apparatus and the brain suggest abilities far beyond that of any canine... could it be that it is all for recognizance of other humans and their places in our barnyard hierarchy?
It has been said that the minimum necessary for human hierarchical structure is more than one, and less than three, humans. These distinctions are often so delicately shaded within our psyches that they may be enjoyed almost without conscious thought, or even volition.
I'm afraid that this essay may not have much psycho-reverberation with anything at all, let alone the 'Net, but I didn't have anywhere else apt to put it. Perhaps we'll effect a new folio where all of this can be properly ignored.
Have you surveyed yet? Please take a moment with our informal questionnaire.
Howardz Palimpsest
--- Clamp Connexions
------ Howard's Hand Honing
--------- Remember the Garbagemen?
This pagination is the creation and elaboration of Howard Szafer, of Howard's Tera-Modal Literation, and is