The Goblin Effect

Ironbear at Who Tends The Fires has put up an essay that makes me sit back and think on life for a while. I've always joked about "social Darwinism"; stupid people weeding themselves out of a gene pool in one fashion or another. Hell, the Darwin Awards have been around for years, making my laugh my ass off whenever they come out. But Ironbear has a different take on it, from a Civilization point of view -

And there's no longer the social environment that provides external reinforcement for what little internal civilizing factors seep through.

Breeding our own predators, in several varieties, from the lone hunters - the serial killer: equivalent to the big cats - to the pack hunters and the scavengers that feed off of them.

Jeff Cooper terms the result of what we're seeing "Goblins". It fits. A Goblin is a human being with no humanity in it. Intelligence with no intellect, tool using with no discipline, social [sometimes] with no socialization. Predatory. Effectively, feral humans.

It's a long essay, and not too terribly pleasant, but entirely worth reading in any case. I think this is the link I send in to the Watcher's Council this week.