Heritage knocks us askew

From Arnold Kling's askblog, Playing the Status Game. He is commenting on a discussion dealing with the role of status manipulation in discussions arising from Tyler Cowen's hypothesis: "So much of debate, including political and economic debate, is about which groups and individuals deserve higher or lower status."

Kling's comment is succinct and on mark.

You can take man out of tribal society, but you cannot take tribal society out of man.

We may wish to be rational decision-makers but our heritage knocks us askew, leading to indulgences that have nothing to do with the optimum argument.