Recently, I've been hearing a bit of resistance to my writing. The complaint is usually something along the lines of this: "Your ideas are good, but it seems like you're trying to convince people to change human nature." I suppose they're right, in a way, given how the majority of humans act towards each other in this day and age.
I have a qualm with this concept of "human nature," though.
You see, one of the supposedly unique qualities of humanity is their ability to make informed decisions without using just instinct. We're supposed to be the most intelligent beings on this planet, our decidedly lacking physical prowess counter-balanced by our hyper-advanced minds. We've developed language independently in our respective civilizations, made technology that makes impossible things into everyday occurrences, and even began understanding the individual components of the known universe.
How is it, then, that we are not evolved enough to make collective advancement possible?
We have enough technology, resources, ability to network, and population density to make the entire world a better place all at once. This generation can end world hunger, war, mass deaths, and most of the evils that the world has seen throughout history.
Except...we won't.
Why?
We've all been taught that it can't happen.
All of the generations before us have taught us not to try to make a difference in the collective consciousness. They squashed dissenting ideas for prevailing ones, delaying or outright obliterating ideas from coming into fruition. Every generation before ours has told us that humans kill, destroy, subjugate, and otherwise ruin each other's lives and their surroundings because that's "Human Nature." We are told from the beginning that humanity is beyond redemption, and that we should not bother trying to affect humanity. Paradoxically, we are also shown examples of individuals who changed history by being either extremely persistent or too intelligent and outspoken to ignore. They are simultaneously paraded around as heroes by our schools and other institutions while mainstream culture constantly convinces us to remain a part of the herd.
In spite of the culture's best efforts, a brave few have broken this mold. It takes an extreme amount of intestinal fortitude to fly in the face of violent, cruel convention, but some have done so successfully. Some of these people are controversial, while others have become worldwide symbols of positive progress. However, in a constantly warring world where "different" has the connotation of "dangerous," it has become rebellion to retain all of your individuality, and it has become treason to defy immoral practices by the ruling class. The people are unhappy, but they are afraid of being ostracized for pointing it out. Therefore, more and more people use the excuse of human nature to justify refusing to act in defiance against the vileness they see around them every day.
You're all either afraid or too lazy to try. You can admit it. You see the evil I see, but you wave it away dismissively under the banner of "human nature." No, you cannot change anyone other than yourself, but if more people decided to change themselves for the better, the world would be a better place. Cruelty, famine due to greedy food distribution, war, domestic violence, police brutality, ethnic tensions between races...these are all taught behaviors. If we can teach a child to hate someone for being different, we should be able to teach them to view people as individuals. If we can teach that one color of skin is better than another, we can teach that all colors are equal.
But we can't teach those things with any sense of gravity if the elders don't truly believe the precepts. Sure, we teach kids in school how to share, that we're all equal and should be treated like that, and all of the rest of the lessons we get from Kindergarten to 6th grade. However, American culture doesn't support the lessons, making the nobler concepts of equality and fairness ring hollow once the kids get a glimpse of the outside world. Of course, everyone is different, but the differences between us should be appreciated, not viewed as a detriment because we don't understand them.
In the end, the reason why things are the way they are is because humanity does not want to change. We have been taught we should not, and so we do not. However, we are completely capable of doing so, and once we realize that, we can make progress together.
I have a qualm with this concept of "human nature," though.
You see, one of the supposedly unique qualities of humanity is their ability to make informed decisions without using just instinct. We're supposed to be the most intelligent beings on this planet, our decidedly lacking physical prowess counter-balanced by our hyper-advanced minds. We've developed language independently in our respective civilizations, made technology that makes impossible things into everyday occurrences, and even began understanding the individual components of the known universe.
How is it, then, that we are not evolved enough to make collective advancement possible?
We have enough technology, resources, ability to network, and population density to make the entire world a better place all at once. This generation can end world hunger, war, mass deaths, and most of the evils that the world has seen throughout history.
Except...we won't.
Why?
We've all been taught that it can't happen.
All of the generations before us have taught us not to try to make a difference in the collective consciousness. They squashed dissenting ideas for prevailing ones, delaying or outright obliterating ideas from coming into fruition. Every generation before ours has told us that humans kill, destroy, subjugate, and otherwise ruin each other's lives and their surroundings because that's "Human Nature." We are told from the beginning that humanity is beyond redemption, and that we should not bother trying to affect humanity. Paradoxically, we are also shown examples of individuals who changed history by being either extremely persistent or too intelligent and outspoken to ignore. They are simultaneously paraded around as heroes by our schools and other institutions while mainstream culture constantly convinces us to remain a part of the herd.
In spite of the culture's best efforts, a brave few have broken this mold. It takes an extreme amount of intestinal fortitude to fly in the face of violent, cruel convention, but some have done so successfully. Some of these people are controversial, while others have become worldwide symbols of positive progress. However, in a constantly warring world where "different" has the connotation of "dangerous," it has become rebellion to retain all of your individuality, and it has become treason to defy immoral practices by the ruling class. The people are unhappy, but they are afraid of being ostracized for pointing it out. Therefore, more and more people use the excuse of human nature to justify refusing to act in defiance against the vileness they see around them every day.
You're all either afraid or too lazy to try. You can admit it. You see the evil I see, but you wave it away dismissively under the banner of "human nature." No, you cannot change anyone other than yourself, but if more people decided to change themselves for the better, the world would be a better place. Cruelty, famine due to greedy food distribution, war, domestic violence, police brutality, ethnic tensions between races...these are all taught behaviors. If we can teach a child to hate someone for being different, we should be able to teach them to view people as individuals. If we can teach that one color of skin is better than another, we can teach that all colors are equal.
But we can't teach those things with any sense of gravity if the elders don't truly believe the precepts. Sure, we teach kids in school how to share, that we're all equal and should be treated like that, and all of the rest of the lessons we get from Kindergarten to 6th grade. However, American culture doesn't support the lessons, making the nobler concepts of equality and fairness ring hollow once the kids get a glimpse of the outside world. Of course, everyone is different, but the differences between us should be appreciated, not viewed as a detriment because we don't understand them.
In the end, the reason why things are the way they are is because humanity does not want to change. We have been taught we should not, and so we do not. However, we are completely capable of doing so, and once we realize that, we can make progress together.
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