I’ve been reading a lot of evolutionary biology recently. It is intriguing to see how many of our rational behaviors are actually manifestations of deeply ingrained instinctual responses. The emotional responses we have to encroachment on what we perceive to be our territory being one of the primary ones.

I realized the other day that the dog that barks at me from behind a fence every time I walk by is barking at me for precisely the same reason that his master built the fence in the first place.

Both dog and master are telling all those who pass by “This is my territory.”

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