On Floyd's Death: This Change Will Take Time
Evolutionary psychology is a fascinating subject.
85 million years ago primates diverged from other mammals.
85 MILLION YEARS AGO.
That's a TON of time for the primate brain to develop (inclusive of produced behaviors) as it makes sense of its natural environment, which includes the social aspect of survival and procreation. One can imagine how our ancestors' brains would have evolved along with the behaviors that made it most likely for genes to make it to the next generation.
Our ancestors whose brains produced the right combinations of behaviors got to make more copies of their genes... that is, behaviors with respect to their accompanying physical (ie. genetic) attributes.
It's that easy.
The vestiges of our primate brain's evolution can be observed in several modern homo sapien behaviors, to wit:
PTSD OCD Jealousy Guilt Lust Vanity Xenophobia The airing of grievances
... just to name a few.
As an aside, the observant reader will note that none of the above behaviors or "feelings" ever comes about due to freely-willed efforts. You become aware of the feeling or associated behavior as it naturally manifests.
>>> Therapists/psychiatrists exist for a reason. <<<
- end aside -
The problem is that back in the day we lived in significantly smaller groups, so the notion of global acceptance is super new for our species.... I can't stress the newness of this concept to our primate brains.
It's awesome that our species has risen to a level of planetary dominance to some extent, but now we have to learn to love each other - no matter what. That's how humans will continue to flourish.
This article explains how studies of chimpanzees and other primates suggests humans have evolved to be acutely aware of who is an insider and who is an outsider. Regrettably, in the case of Floyd and so many others we are reminded of how primitive human brains and human behaviors can be. Our primate brains are going to take a little while to reprogram, I'm afraid. This is not an overnight proposition. Fortunately, as a species we are now acutely aware that we must become a culture of cooperation, not of conflict.
Forgiveness is critical to our progress.