Random Thoughts 18

When thinking about people and human relations, I think we sometimes forget that at our core we are but a very adaptable species of the primate family of the kingdom of mammals.

What does this mean? Well, for one thing, it means that we are animals. Granted we are animals that have highly developed communications skills and a sense of self-awareness, but we still are animals and evolution has left us with the usual animal instincts toward procreation and self-preservation.

With our highly evolved social structures that dictate much of our behavior, people far too
often forget that deep down, the two things that actually motivate individuals is their desire to live or survive and the instinct to pass on another generation.

People, generally, are not instinctively altruistic. Most people are driven by their instinct for self-preservation and the necessity of satisfying their basic needs of food, shelter and protection from the elements. Only when those needs are met will most people find the capacity for altruism. Granted, there are exceptions, but altruism is more a choice than an instinct.

The human individual also has the instincts of a pack animal to an extent as well as some of the instincts of herd animals. Most humans have a need to have the acceptance of either type of animal and find solace in the hierarchical structure of the pack and safety in the comfort of numbers in a herd.

The other thing people are most likely to forget is that governments, organizations, corporations, and other social groups are made up of individuals and it is how those individuals think that eventually is reflected in how that entity deals with the world around it.

It seems to me that if you keep these elements in mind, then it becomes easier to explain and understand human history and current human behavior.

It is our socialization as we grow up in whatever social construct we are born into that shapes our abilities to control and channel the basic instincts. What we so often fail to remember is that there are many social constructs on planet Earth and many of those constructs are not necessarily compatible with the others.

Those raised in the American Occidental Democratic Republican Capitalistic Tradition are imbued with certain values and expectations that have been the world around them. To them, the way they live becomes the “norm” and any other cultural construct is either wrong or abnormal.

There are those who cannot understand or even conceive of a world that, let’s say, has no computers, cars, trains, planes and the Internet. It is difficult in this era to conceive of a world where information moves not at the speed of light but perhaps at the speed of sound, if not slower. This also is the source of much of the problems in the world today.

With information moving at the speed of light, then change comes at people at almost the same pace. Humans, as they are now evolved, have not yet adapted to such rapid change. Change is difficult in its own right, but the speed of change apparently does not allow time for the modern human to perceive, process and the adapt to the new whatever. Evolution doesn’t work in this environment in that the species can not codify the necessary adaptations before new adaptations are required.