If it’s in our “nature” how is it that the vast majority of us are not doing it?
If we look at early human societies they were mostly relatively egalitarian and peaceful. The Hobbesian view of humanity is very useful to make you accept the unacceptable.
If it’s in our “nature” how is it that the vast majority of us are not doing it?
It’s not in the nature of the majority of individuals, but it’s definitely there in the nature of our species. It’s due to the odd nature of statistics. 100% of us will never be peaceful. There will always be a minority - possibly less than 1% that has bloodlust. Unfortunately, that minority is good at playing with the emotions of the rest (this is the speciality of sociopaths) and leading the entire tribe to needless bloodshed.
I agree the variety in humans means we have a small percentage who differ.
What I’m objecting to is the normalization of abberant behaviour as “oh that’s just something we do.” It’s not something most of us do.
When someone comes along like Jimmy Saville people don’t say oh, large scale pedophilia is just human nature.
We quite rightly view it as abberant and our focus is on seeking to put a stop to it. The same thing should happen with things like genocide and ethnic cleansing.
I think people’s revulsion to Israel’s actions say otherwise. Genocide is not some foregone conclusion of human affairs, nor is it “acceptably natural”.
I know people want to believe that, but that’s only possible because we’re fortunate to live in a country (at least here in the US) that has been largely untouched by war for the past 80 years. Americans, by and large, are green as the summer grass.
And in that time, you’re probably familiar with the manner in which we treated minorities, women, and the many, many countries we’ve destroyed, including several in the Middle East.
Crack open any history book. It doesn’t matter where or when. Human beings time and again have expressed that it is in our nature to destroy one another.
It should also be noted that both presumptive presidential candidates support Israel and its genocide 100%, and that’s not going to change 99% of voters’ minds.
To explain away the man-made horrors of the world as being “human nature” is taking the easy route by avoiding questioning what causes the worst things to happen in the world and coming to a shitty catch-all conclusion.
It’s also super defeatist and can stop discussions on how to fix the crimes of those before us.
It’s difficult to wrap your head around evil of this depth and scale.
It’s just in our nature.
Our whole history as a species has consisted of tribal warfare of some flavor.
If it’s in our “nature” how is it that the vast majority of us are not doing it?
If we look at early human societies they were mostly relatively egalitarian and peaceful. The Hobbesian view of humanity is very useful to make you accept the unacceptable.
It’s not in the nature of the majority of individuals, but it’s definitely there in the nature of our species. It’s due to the odd nature of statistics. 100% of us will never be peaceful. There will always be a minority - possibly less than 1% that has bloodlust. Unfortunately, that minority is good at playing with the emotions of the rest (this is the speciality of sociopaths) and leading the entire tribe to needless bloodshed.
I agree the variety in humans means we have a small percentage who differ.
What I’m objecting to is the normalization of abberant behaviour as “oh that’s just something we do.” It’s not something most of us do.
When someone comes along like Jimmy Saville people don’t say oh, large scale pedophilia is just human nature.
We quite rightly view it as abberant and our focus is on seeking to put a stop to it. The same thing should happen with things like genocide and ethnic cleansing.
100%
Let’s not forget that the Leviathan was the justification for the divine right of kings over democratic systems.
I think people’s revulsion to Israel’s actions say otherwise. Genocide is not some foregone conclusion of human affairs, nor is it “acceptably natural”.
I know people want to believe that, but that’s only possible because we’re fortunate to live in a country (at least here in the US) that has been largely untouched by war for the past 80 years. Americans, by and large, are green as the summer grass.
And in that time, you’re probably familiar with the manner in which we treated minorities, women, and the many, many countries we’ve destroyed, including several in the Middle East.
Crack open any history book. It doesn’t matter where or when. Human beings time and again have expressed that it is in our nature to destroy one another.
It should also be noted that both presumptive presidential candidates support Israel and its genocide 100%, and that’s not going to change 99% of voters’ minds.
To explain away the man-made horrors of the world as being “human nature” is taking the easy route by avoiding questioning what causes the worst things to happen in the world and coming to a shitty catch-all conclusion.
It’s also super defeatist and can stop discussions on how to fix the crimes of those before us.