Take a look at this picture of who-wins-conflicts-with-whom in an actual group of canines:
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Now, of those, who's the alpha? Br has the most wins... and an equal number of losses. GS? Ed? Really, there's no way to tell... because wolves and dogs don't really sort themselves out like that.
With one, notably exception. When there's a small group, and the ones in charge are mom & dad to the rest. Which... well, yea, parents... who don't act in the stereotypical alpha-aggression fashion, almost never initiating conflict with the kids. Unless there's a step parent, in which case there can be may be some fighting.
Also, actual aggression in wild packs is pretty uncommon, and a lot of stuff associated with 'submission,' like, say, begging for food from another, doesn't necessarily mean a poor position- if there's a canine that everyone else gives food, that means they *like* that individual, possibly a lot more than the one who picks & wins fights, and may be of higher status.
Which makes it kinda funny when people try and frame human behavior in alpha/beta/etc. terms and paint aggression as the way to 'be an alpha,' when it's not even the case with wolves, the original use of that phrase was based on a very limited study of a single group in captivity, and doesn't represent any natural sorting.
Anyway, just an interesting article I thought I'd share.
Your post got me to thinking. We all know anthropomorphism is attributing human attributes to (in this case) animals, but, turns out beastiality is an acceptable way of describing the opposite...
bestialise/-ize - to make bestial or beastlike: War bestializes its participants.
...and so is zoomorphism, which is the tendency of viewing human behavior in terms of the behavior of animals.
If i ever knew these definitions, i'd forgotten them till now so, (re?)learned something new today!
...especially since the term these clowns are looking for is 'omega-male'
the beautiful irony is that guys who throw these terms about are typically doing so in order to test others for a higher position in their respective pecking order, which is most typical of a pack's beta males toward other beta males.
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Your Lord knows very well what is in your heart. Your soul suffices this day as a reckoner against you. I need no witnesses. You do not listen to your soul, but listen instead to your anger and your rage.
Last edited by Bashar Teg on Oct 27th, 2015 at 02:57 PM
The guy who did this research is probably an assmad beta. tbh
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"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
Multiple people were involved in coming to this conclusion including, ironically, Rudolf Schenkel, the person of the original alpha study, and it's popularizer are among them:
"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
Alpha- and beta mentality originates from Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" where the alpha mentality is the desire for personal growth whereas the beta mentality is the desire for safety and comfort.
Last edited by Astner on Oct 28th, 2015 at 07:47 AM
Gender: Unspecified Location: With Cinderella and the 9 Dwarves
I see where you are coming from, but I don't think Nietzsche used these terms. Nor do (most) people who talk about Alphas and Betas actually follow Nietzsche's philosophy, rather they are following a simplification of the pack theory as this thread explains.
The alpha mentality is distinguishing of people who are competitive, opportunistic, don't dwell on regrets and want to lead. The beta mentality on the other hand is distinguishing of lazy and cowardly ****s who want to be taken care of. That's why Nietzsche also called it the herd- and slave mentality.
How does that not adequately represent the modern view of the alpha male?
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Oct 26th, 2015 10:07 AM
