things like the dark tetrad traits (narcissism, machiavellianism, psychopathy, sadism) are adaptive even on a group level
Yup. And how adaptive they are depends on the distribution of other agent types. For example, against a population of pure pacifists, Dark Tetrad traits may be pretty effective. In a population of agents who cooperate with one another but punish rule-breakers, Dark Tetrad traits are probably less adaptive. Hopefully present-day society is somewhat close to the latter case, although human reproduction isn’t very constrained by material resources in the developed world, so I’m unsure how much society punishing some Dark Tetrad people affects their reproductive fitness. Also, some narcissists “succeed” greatly in our society (Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and too many others to list).
I take your point that darkness and hate can lead to love/reduction in hatred
I mainly mentioned those points in case someone would quibble with the absoluteness of King’s quote. As they say, “all generalizations are false”. In our present world, where we generally don’t kill or tyrannize everyone who disagrees with us, I think it’s generally more effective to move more in King’s direction than our primate instincts incline us to. If you can’t massacre your enemies, you have to find a way to make peace with them.
Thanks for the kind words. :)
Yup. And how adaptive they are depends on the distribution of other agent types. For example, against a population of pure pacifists, Dark Tetrad traits may be pretty effective. In a population of agents who cooperate with one another but punish rule-breakers, Dark Tetrad traits are probably less adaptive. Hopefully present-day society is somewhat close to the latter case, although human reproduction isn’t very constrained by material resources in the developed world, so I’m unsure how much society punishing some Dark Tetrad people affects their reproductive fitness. Also, some narcissists “succeed” greatly in our society (Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and too many others to list).
I mainly mentioned those points in case someone would quibble with the absoluteness of King’s quote. As they say, “all generalizations are false”. In our present world, where we generally don’t kill or tyrannize everyone who disagrees with us, I think it’s generally more effective to move more in King’s direction than our primate instincts incline us to. If you can’t massacre your enemies, you have to find a way to make peace with them.