28
Why Nations Pretend To Be Blind
Scapegoating is not the only consequence of pecking order slippage for
the operations of the mind. A rise or fall in hierarchical position can
radically rearrange the way we see the world.
I own a very large German shepherd who is inordinately fond of
pecking order games. When we walk through the park and he spots another
canine, he's suddenly all playful eagerness. His ears go up. His eyes grow
bright. He can't wait to run over to the stranger and make friends. One
reason for the enthusiasm: in the game of chase and tumble that follows the
first sniffed greeting, my dog is certain he will come out on top.
At least that's the way it goes most of the time. The dog that appears on
the other side of a meadow is not always some little cocker spaniel or
mid-sized mutt my shepherd can tower over. Now and then it's a mastiff or
Great Dane, a hulking giant that makes my well-built pooch look like a fuzzy
midget. When one of these really big dogs appears, a strange thing happens
to my pet's enthusiasm. It disappears. Faced with a creature he knows will
beat him soundly, my shepherd plays a perceptual game. He trots along
staring resolutely ahead, feigning obliviousness to the massive monster in
the distance.
Ethologist Frans De Waal has noted the same behavior in chimpanzees.
De Waal, who cropped up in the early pages of this book, spent six years
carefully analyzing the nuances of social behavior among the chimps of the
Burgers' Zoo in Arnhem, Holland. There, the animals live in a two-acre
outdoor compound that approximates as closely as possible the conditions of
the wild.64 Each chimpanzee tribe--whether in the zoo or in the jungle--has
its leader. According to De Waal's observations, this dominant male hasn't
become king of the chimps by accident. He has waged a long, hard
campaign to make it to the top of the pecking order. He's developed his
physical strength, learned to make loud and frightening displays, and has
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