<!-- bryant-content-generator:start --> # There are floors beneath the basement the reader... > There are floors beneath the basement the reader believes they have reached. Beneath betrayal lies competition; beneath competition lies fear; beneath fear lies the nervous system; beneath the nervous system lies an evolutionary inheritance written across millions of years in which hesitation, exclusion, coalition, violence, deception, vigilance, submission and aggression determined who ate, who mated, who belonged, who was expelled and who survived. The polished modern human may own a smartphone, quote philosophy, discuss emotional intelligence, wear beautiful clothes, command institutions, profess unconditional love, and still become astonishingly primitive the instant status, possession, jealousy, humiliation, abandonment, territory or tribal belonging is threatened. Some arguments are status challenges. Some jealousy is mate guarding with poetry written over it. Some gossip is coalition management. Some exclusion is ancient troop behavior conducted through text messages. Some concern is territoriality. Some drama is an organism manufacturing threat because threat is the only environment its nervous system knows how to run in. And some people who speak endlessly of love are, at the behavioral level, still trying to make everyone around them **submit**. {{Civilization did not remove the ape. Civilization gave the ape contracts, passwords, weapons, corporations, religions, flags, surveillance systems, attorneys, social media, and an almost limitless vocabulary for explaining why its appetites are righteous.}} **Source:** [[books/Chimping Out|Chimping Out]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “There are floors beneath the basement the reader believes they have reached. Beneath betrayal lies competition; beneath competition lies fear; beneath fear lies the nervous system; beneath the nervous system lies an evolutionary inheritance written across millions of years in which hesitation, exclusion, coalition, violence, deception, vigilance, submission and aggression determined who ate, who mated, who belonged, who was expelled and who survived. The polished modern human may own a smartphone, quote philosophy, discuss emotional intelligence, wear beautiful clothes, command institutions, profess unconditional love, and still become astonishingly primitive the instant status, possession, jealousy, humiliation, abandonment, territory or tribal belonging is threatened. Some arguments are status challenges. Some jealousy is mate guarding with poetry written over it. Some gossip is coalition management. Some exclusion is ancient troop behavior conducted through text messages. Some concern is territoriality. Some drama is an organism manufacturing threat because threat is the only environment its nervous system knows how to run in. And some people who speak endlessly of love are, at the behavioral level, still trying to make everyone around them submit. Civilization did not remove the ape. Civilization gave the ape contracts, passwords, weapons, corporations, religions, flags, surveillance systems, attorneys, social media, and an almost limitless vocabulary for explaining why its appetites are righteous.” — Bryant McGill https://bryantmcgill.com/passages/passages-floors-beneath-basement-explaining-appetites-righteous ``` <!-- bryant-content-generator:end -->