In a previous post, I looked at my very young sons and saw no signs of racial or class hatred, and I jumped to the Rousseau-ian conclusion that such behavior must be inculcated by society.
Not so fast! It is at least conceivable that we are pre-programmed with an ‘us-versus-them’ gene (call it ‘UvT’) that kicks in later in life, just as some sexual behavior kicks in at puberty. After all, some social behavior in animal species appears to be inherited. Lions and wolves live in groups, while tigers and coyotes live more solitary lives. Certain species of red ants are programmed to attack and enslave black ants.
It makes evolutionary sense that an individual gene may enhance its survival chances by enhancing the survival chances of the group or clan. This is the argument in Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene. Imagine a clan of blue-eyed people. They may have evolved to the extent that one of its blue-eyed members might be genetically programmed to lay down his life for his clan, so that the blue-eyed gene survives.
In this same way, we may be programmed with a UvT gene or combination of genes that makes us fight for our own clan in order to preserve our own genetic structures.
I’m reminded of Golding’s Lord of the Flies, in which a group of young boys are abandoned on an island and naturally break apart into warring factions.
Suppose that we all have UvT genes in our modern society. It is not clear who our ‘clan’ is. In general, it’s anyone who is just like us. Other races, religions, and physical types are identified as outside the ‘clan’, so that the UvT kicks in.
Society, and notably parents, play their role in identifying those outside our ‘clan’. They may tell us that certain races are bad, and then our inherent UvT easily convinces us to attack or discriminate against them.
I’m not arguing that the UvT genetic theory is necessarily true, but it’s at least plausible and has a certain amount of internal consistency, especially when we consider social behaviors of animals that are apparently controlled by the genes.