being dunked by the stronger, aphorism 194, The Mechanics of Virtue, Matt Berry

194

After being dunked by the stronger, the humiliated can often bob back to the surface by becoming extremely rational.  The drive is dominance, or, which is of the same mechanism, a need to preserve an imagined rank, merited or not.  However, we would misunderstand this example of homeostasis, if the return from the extreme left us with the conclusion that the extreme was the agent.  We might for example mistakenly set up humiliation as a goal, or rite of passage. “Blessed are the meek....”  Or, on the other hand, if our evidence were their push toward our humiliation, we might conclude with “power corrupts” and find tyrants everywhere. 


We would be better off if we were strong enough to resist being dunked in the first place, but even if incapable of withstanding the force, we might struggle and fight our way back to a higher rank by refusing the appeals to “Unmerited Humiliation” and “Corrupting Power” – for in all honesty, we know that we are not equipped to settle for fairness once we have the power to enforce it.



A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism



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