Heyoo. This is the 2nd part of an article related to our "dark side" a.k.a. animal instincts that live inside all of us...

(If you don't know what I am talking about, go HERE and check out that article. Then come back, it will make much more sense)

For the rest of you, let's continue...

Previous part we ended by mentioning 3 main instincts that you will find in all primates & most of the animals:

1. SELF-PRESERVATION
2. SEX - SELF-REPRODUCTION
3. DOMINATION

And if with self-preservation and sex everything kind of makes sense, domination instinct is a bit sneakier and that's exactly what we gonna speak about here.

So what's the idea of "domination"? (DOMINATE DESTROY CONQUER! - Just kidding, lol)

Domination in the animal world means to submit other animals in the pack. Imagine hierarchy in the animal kingdom.

Imagine pack of chimpanzees. Chimpanzee on the lower side of the hierarchical ladder is programmed to submit to a chimpanzee on top of the hierarchical ladder. You probably heard alpha and beta male. That's basically it.

This hierarchy must exist for regulation of animal pack. It lowers deaths & aggression inside the pack.

Example: Exists strong, aggressive full grown male. Also in pack lives young, weak male. Because of special "relationship regulation" system, weaker male understands that he is lower in the hierarchy than stronger male and because of that he must submit to him in everything. (This is literally encoded in animals on genetic level)

Because of this basic understanding between animals (who is stronger and weaker), they don't fight constantly and don't kill each other for food and females. That is beneficial for the pack and whole species because it helps their survival.

BUT...that is only when the hierarchy is already defined (one knows that he is lower than another) But what if, for example, males meet each other for the first time?

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This is where all bs comes together. Bullying and problems who is better and cooler.
See, for animals, it is very important to know where they stand on the hierarchical ladder because it will affect the survivability of specific animal. For people nowadays this also has meaning, but very small, because relationships between people are regulated by social norms (customs) and if these norms are very important than they are also backed up by LAW.

Example: if you gonna slap ass of that unknown cute girl in public place, you will act against social norms (customs) and people will probably get outraged "you behave inappropriately", "what an asshole" etc. Maybe someone will punch in your face. But most people don't behave like that with s random woman on the street (social norms work).

But if you also gonna decide to drag that girl into the valley and gonna try to pull her panties off with a goal to "get some pleasure" a.k.a. rape, that will not only gonna be against social norms. That is against norms that are backed by law. You will go to court, trial and gonna get punished.

That's how nowadays society is regulating relationships between its members. But earlier in the history, in smaller packs regulation happened mainly through hierarchy (I am stronger means I am right)

CONCLUSION #1:

The animal instinct of domination (hierarchy) nowadays doesn't have such important role as in the past, BUT... IT, instinct, doesn't know that! So it continues to work in full throttle hindering your life in different ways.

So, how is it manifested in our lives? - Basically, you will see it almost in everything. Including in those things that I mentioned at the beginning of the previous article.

When people begin to sort thing out between themselves on the internet shitting on each other, they are trying to put themselves higher in the hierarchy. And the more they argue, the more personal insults and cursing is involved. This behavior is actually very predictable. Because cursing, in essence, is a manifestation of emotions, but emotions themselves are a manifestation of irrationality or instinctual behavior.

You also gotta understand that this instinct of domination lives very deeply in our subconscious mind. We are not conscious of it or can regulate it. Same as other autonomous processes in our body like blood flow. Because if you give control of it to individual or animal, he can fuck something up and survivability of this being will go down. So nature doesn't give us this option of control.

That's why we basically can lose control so fast during disputes on the Internet. An instinct of self-preservation is off because we are so far away from our "opponent", but the instinct of domination (hierarchy) pushes us to prove that we are better than another person.

That's why we don't like to admit our mistakes and superiority of other people. Because that means that status of another person is higher than ours. Animal inside of us doesn't like this and it turns on aggression and emotions, switching off logic and reasoning.

STATUS MARKERS

These are markers that help us to understand who has more status and who less. Because we live in the material world, one of the strongest things that help us to see - if the person is high status or low status (higher or lower on hierarchy) is how many expensive objects of the material world and money individual has.

The higher status of the person the more expensive things he can get. And usually, people acquire these things actively in order to make it clear to others that he is better (his status is higher). His animals instinct of domination is literally "asking" it from him. That's why people buy Rolex, expansive cars and yachts. That is how they show other people that their status is higher! I know, fascinating

Expensive cars, watches, yachts, mansions, many women - all these things are status markers. And they all work! Woman and man will treat you differently if you drive Lamborghini compared to 20-year-old Honda. Nothing against Honda, but you get the point. So when you see on YouTube "Golddigger" pranks, that's what it's about. It's not that those specific women are sluts, superficial, "gold-diggers" etc. No. These things work for everyone. An especially interesting thing will happen if these 2 individuals (on Lamborghini and 20 y.o. Honda) will get into the car accident. Because on an instinctual level, status has a very strong impact on human behavior, person with lower status will be more compliant and "softer" towards a person with higher status.

CONCLUSION #2:

Status markers are all around us all the time. Instincts inside of us, people, view them as a sign of higher or lower status, thus it subconsciously impacts our behavior at all times.

So, some of you might think now - maybe hierarchy is actually good? Maybe all you gotta do is just to improve your status and everything will be good in life?

Well, high status is not bad! BUT, no matter how high is your status there will always be someone who will have higher status.
Even president of USA will be compliant towards his physician in specific situations. However problem with this status thing is different...

In the competition for higher status, your rational mind switches off and your animal instincts switch on!

They say that "Emotions are bad adviser". It's true because we no longer live in jungle or savanna. We live in the society where your success is mainly caused by reasonable behavior & thinking!

EXAMPLE: 2 male monkeys got into argument over a female. One monkey strong, aggressive (strong animal instincts) another monkey weaker but more reasonable (conscious behavior). More reasonable monkey backed away and made it seem like he gave up and lost (even tho animal instinct inside him required aggression in fight for status)
But during the night it sneaked up to stronger, aggressive monkey while it was sleeping and smashed its head with a rock. In this case, reasonable behavior ended up being more stronger, more effective than instinctual.

What are the benefits of more reasonable monkey? Monkey understood that he is weaker. He acknowledged that, and by understanding it, he developed a more effective method in dealing with the opponent.

Admitting your weaknesses and mistakes gives you an opportunity to become much better and reach results! But in order to do it, you have to be able to repress your animal instincts with reason.

With your mind, you understand that you can be wrong in many situations. That in many things other people are better than you. But, when arguments start you don't consider those situations as an opportunity to learn or get better, but instead you see them as a fight. Fight for status.

REASONABLE BEHAVIOR:

Reasonable behavior will bring much more things into your life. In order to get results in life you have to plan, usually long-term. But emotions, our instincts, always happen now! They are always focused on short-term behavior, I want to eat NOW, I want to fuck NOW, I want this and that NOW! This is hindering long-term planning that usually brings good things into our life.

That means that conscious suppression of our animal instincts, that make us compete for higher status, is adventitious in our planning for long-term behavior.

Think about this next time when someone says you did something wrong and gives you critical feedback. Switch off your emotions and look at this situations from the standpoint of how it can benefit you. Listen to the person without emotions and actually think how you can use it for your benefit.

I, myself, as any person, can make mistakes and am not perfect. Obviously, I also have animals instincts inside which sometimes make my blood "boil" and you feel like just losing control. I also have urges to curse and fuck something up. But I also understand that it is weakness and always try to fight with these urges. Trying to look at situations from different sides and understand how it can help me.

The more you try to control it, the more effective it will become...

wabba labba dub dub

OTHER POSTS:

• ARE WE STILL ANIMALS? - Archaic instincts that make us aggressive, emotional and hinder our lives [Part 1]
• What's up with me? - 3 FASCINATING THINGS I LEARNED FROM PERFORMING MAGIC FOR 9 YEARS [Post #1]

Image sources: Pixabay & Canva