The Twin Evils of Human Nature
Bruce L. Gary, 2020.11.16
The human nature that we inherited from our ancestors is designed by evolution for small tribe living and it is mal-adapted to contemporary conditions. The small tribe tolerates individualism during peaceful times, but it must enforce universal conformance of "eusocial" behavior during preparation for inter-tribal warfare. Eusocial is a technical term describing behaviors that support the collective without regard to individual welfare. A subset of the tribe's members (~ 40 %) are endowed with an instinct to enforce conformance of beliefs and behaviors at these critical times. Since the Enforcers cause all tribesmen to surrender individualism in favor of helping the collective to survive, I view the Enforcers as hyper-eusocialized. The opposite of the Enforcer is the hyper-individualized person, or psychopath. He has no regard for the collective's welfare because for him (90 % of psychopaths are men) only his welfare matters. Whereas a psychopath could not trick small tribesmen because within a small tribe everyone knows everyone, in today's super-tribes, or societies, the psychopath is a master gamer of the system. The Enforcers are natural followers of a strong leader who they deem to be a legitimate authority. This is an opportunity for the psychopath to become an imposter "great leader." What could possibly go wrong? When a psychopath achieves leadership of a society with the support of Enforcers we have what's called "fascism"! This is what happened in Nazi Germany. America is near a precipice of this happening and destroying a 242-year experiment with democracy.
If you take the viewpoint
that tribal gene pools are competing with each other then the
individual tribesmen they create are the combatants. Do not
expect the individuals to be truth seekers, because their job
is to preserve and promote the gene pool that created them.
It’s no wonder that people have beliefs that can be
incompatible with reality, or incompatible with other beliefs
they hold. Individual behavior is also programmed to improve
gene pool welfare, not individual welfare.
During the
millions of years that our ancestors lived in small tribes
there was a chronic concern for protecting tribal territory.
Occasionally there were outbreaks of all-out warfare. When
times were relatively peaceful tribes tolerated individual
differences because it contributed to a more effective
division of labor that strengthened the tribe. This
“individualism” might in fact have been encouraged by the
tribal culture. When warfare loomed the tribe would have to
suspend tolerance for individualism, and instead enforce a
uniformity of attitudes and behaviors that improve the tribe’s
prospects for survival during warfare. Eusocialism is a name
for beliefs and behaviors that promote survival of the
collective, or tribe, without regard for individual welfare.
Individualism is the opposite, for it celebrates individual
welfare with less regard for the collective.
The
evolution of human nature led to an adaptation to the needs of
these two states and the transitions between them. The
transition from peaceful times to readiness for warfare
involves the choosing of a “strong leader” to strategize and
coordinate warriors. Individual warriors must forget that they
are individuals, because each must follow the commands of
their leader. The requirements of teamwork mean that the
concept of Individualism is forgotten, at least for the
duration of warfare. During the Holocene, starting
11,700 years ago, the collective became a super-tribe
and sometimes the strong leader was a psychopath imposter. We
call this social state “fascism.”
The only
way to understand today’s readiness to answer " the call to
fascism" is by first accepting that our nature is what evolved
during the ancestral tribal setting. We are individuals living
in super-tribe societies with a nature designed for small
tribe societies. If someone comes across as a strong leader
who is warning of looming invasion there exists a fraction of
the population who will automatically react to this call by
adopting the stance of preparing for war. I refer to them as
Enforcers because they enforce conformance of thought and
behavior that is commanded by the strong leader. They think of
themselves as patriots, and their excessive flag-waving is
meant to intimidate the others into accepting whatever
conformance they are enforcing. The Enforcers, who number
about 40 % of the American population, are enemies of
individualism.
The
Enforcers can be described as hyper-eusocial because their
unthinking aim is to protect the collective without regard to
the welfare of individuals. Individual sacrifice on behalf of
the collective, the essence of patriotism, is the only measure
that matters for them. At the other extreme are the
hyper-individualists. They have no regard for the collective’s
welfare. We call them psychopaths. Psychopaths can be keen
observers of the weaknesses of others for the purpose of
victimizing them. Psychopaths are masters of “gaming the
system.” In the small tribe setting the occasional psychopath
would never succeed in persuading tribesmen of their
credibility. This is because in a small tribe everyone knows
everyone. In a super-tribe, however, the psychopath is better
able to persuade strangers that he is whatever he says he is.
Very often in the super-tribe the aspiring strong leader is a
psychopath imposter.
The twin
evils of human nature are the hyper-eusocialized and
hyper-individualized, the Enforcer and the psychopath!
In the
ancestral small tribe setting neither extreme was a problem.
But in today's massive collective the twin evils can combine
to become a serious threat. Democracy is an experiment with
too little experience for gauging its strength or stability.
Can a democracy today be hijacked by a strong leader using
fascist tricks. Yes, we saw it happen in Italy and Germany a
century ago, and recently we’ve seen it happen in Russia,
Turkey, Egypt, the Philippines – and it is on the verge of
happening in Hungary, Poland and America
Placing
blame may not be helpful but it’s something we just naturally
do. Surely we can blame a robber for robbing, but we can also
blame the victim when he neglects precautions – such as
leaving an unattended car in a poor neighborhood with keys in
the ignition. A democracy is more complicated, but in addition
to blaming the imposter psychopath for pretending to be a
strong leader we should also blame any society that becomes
victimized by that imposter. Consider the Enforcers who are
just waiting to follow commands from a seemingly legitimate
authority “great leader” who warns of imminent existential
threat of the home society. They are who they are, and can’t
change – so can we blame them for becoming unthinking
followers? Yes, we can, but that won’t accomplish anything.
Can we blame the news organizations who are just “making a
buck” by spreading inflammatory fake news that strengthens the
Enforcer’s belief system? Yes, but again that won’t accomplish
anything. Can we blame the Republicans in the American senate
for preferring to keep their job than save democracy? Yes, but
then what. There’s plenty of blame everywhere.
Whenever I
hear commentators on TV try to answer the question “what’s the
solution?” I am perplexed by the assumption that there is
a solution. Maybe there isn’t. Maybe America is destined to
take the declining road to fascism and global irrelevance.
Maybe the Enforcers who voted for Trump will be like the Nazi
storm troopers. Those driving pick-up trucks with big flags
will soon be wearing MAGA armbands, with batons and holsters
at the ready. They may form roving mobs, looking for
unpatriotic liberal elites, Muslims and immigrants.
Today’s
social climate in America gives me a better understanding of
how Nazi Germany came about. Then, as now, the twin evils of
human nature, the Enforcers and psychopaths, combined to
create a living Hell on Earth.
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