 think when comparing wild and tame on the one hand we can look at we see lions and wolves and then we compare them to domestic Tabby's Chihuahuas and think well it's a lot more respectable you know there's something more magnificent about a lion or a wolf than there is about a domestic cat or dog but then when we think about it we also think well you know do I want to live in a world where lions and wolves are you know eating everything maybe it's a lot nicer to be in this tame world you know the cats you know maybe they'll still kill some birds and mice but you know their their aggression is reduced and the domestic dogs have far reduced aggression below wolves they're just there's just something kind of nice and peaceful almost like innocent about these pets about these domesticated animals it is almost kind of nice you know it's like oh you know they're just they're cute and they don't really hurt things and so isn't that better and so you know maybe that's better for us too maybe a tame human is not quite as magnificent as you know some kind of neanderthal with a club but on the other hand who wants to go back to that who wants to go back to the violent world of the caveman and instead we can live in this sort of peace and you know be cute and wonderful and have a nice life and I think one thing to bear in mind is that reduced aggression does not necessarily mean there's going to be less violence so reduced aggression greater docility less reactivity it's one of the most basic features of a domesticated animal and yet you look at modern humans and it's hard to describe us as peaceful so in a way by reducing our aggression reducing our reactive aggression so that you know we get angry and then we crush a skull well by reducing that aggression it actually makes us able to do greater damage to be more violent more effectively violent using smart violence and end up causing a lot more destruction so we by by not reacting to everything that comes up with immediate violence we can control ourselves to the point where we can have greater cooperation but then what do we do with that cooperation we cooperate with our group and we can then have organized aggression against other groups I mean why is this why is it if we really have reduced aggression then how are we still able to do such destruction and I don't have the answer to this I just think it has to be has to be separated the idea of being a cute tame domesticated animal has to be separated from the idea of being peaceful because it seems like there's really maybe two explanations and one is that we express our aggression through our cooperative efforts so we are aggressive in a group together rather than just individually lashing out and the other explanation might be that we do actually have reduced aggression and that we are more docile and easily controlled and so we submit to those who basically run us like pets have owners and we so we submit to being ruled and then those who are ruling are the ones who can let out their aggression and I don't know I think there's some kind of mix of these ideas I think that we certainly still have aggression within us we all know that that feeling of aggression so we certainly we're not completely tame in that sense we don't have we're not completely shut down from any kind of aggression but but maybe even pets aren't like that either I mean a cat still likes to hurt mice and birds and dog when a dog goes chasing a squirrel he's not going off after the squirrel with the intention of giving it a hug so this aggression is never really gone and I wonder how much it's reduced and how much it is somehow suppressed the way it's expressed is somehow difference that you know we also have passive aggression where we sort of hide instead of having direct acts of aggression we kind of have indirect aggression and you know sort of sneakily finding ways to hurt each other and so this aggression is still there so I think there's a common kind of it's easy to see this whole world of tameness and domestication as being this kind of cute peaceful paradise but somehow it doesn't seem quite to add up that way but I'd be curious to hear what you think about it