Extremist Activity

There seems to be great concern today about a possible return of extremist activity by persons who commit unprovoked violence upon others solely due to their ethnic origins. Obviously there is nothing new about such activity. Ethnic cleansing is an ancient hominid activity which has long preceded the advent of human evolution. Chimpanzees practice it. But why does it exist? The short answer is: sex. By preventing other males from having access to females within a group's territory, the group ensures its survival as a group. War is good example of this group survival. So too is gang activity. In war, an army is the gang...better trained, better armed; but it's still a gang. When societies speak of extremist activities, they are usually referring to members of one group attacking other members of the same group; say Americans of one ethnic origin attacking other Americans of a different ethnic origin: a tribe within a tribe attacking another tribe within that same tribe. Since tribes were originally formed as extensions of families, family cohesion is broken when one member of a tribe attacks another member of the same tribe. So why do these events occur; if such events cause a lack of cohesion within the group? Extremist acts occur as a result of peer group pressure to conform to the sub-group's standards of worth. Cohesion, all by itself, causes extremism because humanity is programmed to be loyal only to an extended family of individuals: two hundred or less, that can be recognized (the original tribal clan family). When the group becomes larger than this recognizable two hundred, sub-groups shall form and loyalty is then shifted to a sub-group and away from the greater group, of which a sub-group forms just a small part. What happens in extremist cases; is this sub-group doesn't actually exist. It is an idealized sub-group, a fantasy, a phantom. The extremist strives to become a loyal member of a psychic sub-group that can't actually exist: the martyrs, the rebels, the true believers. And to secure membership in a non-existent sub-group, an extremist must prove worthiness: He kills.