"interpersonal-combativeness"

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Waking up this morning to what seems an answer to the previous post here, that of what is pointed out by the comparison of "what I believe people ought to be doing intensively nowadays" vs "what people really are doing nowadays." It is a parameter that could be named "interpersonal-combativeness." "Interpersonal combativeness" would in turn be the union of the subsets "predatory" and "one's own kind." Identification of that which is "one's own kind" vs all else, would be involved, surely.

It does seem a well-matching parameter to the cause of why people have chosen to squander the nation's resources on war's extravagances ("we are doing to them before they do to us" kind of thing) instead of investing equal extraordinary effort to extend civilization into the Clarke Belt via space elevators and/or space escalator technology, so as to solve the many crisis upcoming for civilization so fast.

Grabbing the remaining goodies and disposing of the other people, is a primitive reaction to the situation of noticing diminishing usable resources and habitable territory; the making of that kind of choice indicates being forced down to instinctive behavior by overwhelming other distractions of some kind, taking too much attention and personal resources, to be able to cope in a much more refined and intelligent manner. It is a fall-back mode that civilization cannot take very often.

This does not explain why people chose that path, instead of reaching for the good life for humanity. It merely defines the parameter that kicked in, to cause the extraordinary grief for humanity.

The explanation of the why of it, probably goes down the path of the need to "show who is boss here", and that is a close relative of the "interpersonal-combativeness" parameter.

Now, they could have chosen to show "who is boss here" by going for the civilization extension into GEO, the Clarke Belt, as I have so often described. It could have been done just as easily as choosing the path they have actually taken, spending all our money as if it were theirs, for "squash & smash" instead of "build & grow." They could even have claimed that it all was their own idea and I had nothing to do with it, thus declaring themselves totally "boss here," sharing nothing.

So there were more factors heavily involved; and probably a major one is that they were far more practiced at warfare behavior, than the equally dangerous and daring behavior of building space escalators and the huge industries, farms and cities in GEO, ready to reach further out from that secure base thereafter. It was what the "they" who "are boss here" feel they know how to do in the public view. Thus was their choice that made the difference between what I believe people ought to be doing nowadays vs what they have been really doing.

And no, I never the slightest bit considered myself the boss here, nor did I have any urge to do so. Maybe that is also why the womenfolk don't seem to consider me a worthy mate for them... and that in turn may explain why the "who is boss here" interpersonal-combativeness kind of thing is going on, instead of the wonderfully beautiful kind of behavior people can do.