History is full of violence and oppression within and between groups, and although group conflicts enhance within-group cooperation (mediated by oxytocin, which promotes parochial altruism) the hierarchy within groups ensures that spoils accrue very unevenly. Darwin suggested, and we now know, that sexual selection is as powerful as selection by mortality, and the main purpose of survival is reproduction. Male reproductive skew is greater than that among females in all societies, but the difference became much greater after the hunting-gathering era, and the rise of so-called “civilization” was everywhere a process of predatory expansion, producing kingdoms and empires where top males achieved astounding heights of reproductive success. This was shown by historical and ethnographic data now strongly confirmed by genomic science. Psychological research confirms that group identity, out-group stigmatization, leadership characterized by charisma, the will to power, narcissism, sociopathy, and cruelty, and followership characterized by hypnotic obedience, loss of individuality, and cruelty are integral parts of human nature. We can thank at least ten or twelve millennia of microevolutionary processes such as those described above, all more prominent in males than females. Followers in wars have faced a difficult risk-benefit analysis, but if they survived and won they too could increase their reproductive success through the rape and other sexual exploitation that have accompanied almost all wars. For modern leaders, social monogamy and contraception have separated autocracy from reproductive success, but only partly, and current worldwide autocratic trends still depend on the evolved will to power, obedience, and cruelty.

历史充满了群体内部和群体之间的暴力和压迫，尽管群体冲突增强了群体内部的合作（由催产素调节，促进了狭隘的利他主义），但群体内部的等级制度确保了战利品的积累非常不均衡。达尔文提出，我们现在知道，性选择与死亡选择一样强大，而生存的主要目的是繁殖。男性生殖偏差在所有社会中都大于女性，但在狩猎采集时代之后差异变得更大，所谓“文明”的兴起到处都是掠夺性扩张的过程，产生了顶级的王国和帝国雄性达到了惊人的繁殖成功高度。历史和人种学数据表明了这一点，现在基因组科学已经强烈证实了这一点。心理学研究证实，群体认同、群体外的污名化、以魅力为特征的领导、权力意志、自恋、反社会和残忍，以及以催眠服从、丧失个性和残忍为特征的追随者是人性不可分割的一部分。我们可以感谢至少十到一千二千年的微进化过程，例如上述那些，所有这些在男性中都比女性更突出。战争中的追随者面临着艰难的风险收益分析，但如果他们幸存下来并获胜，他们也可以通过几乎所有战争都伴随的强奸和其他性剥削来提高他们的繁殖成功率。对于现代领导人来说，社会一夫一妻制和避孕将专制与生育成功分开，但只是部分地，