Integrating A New Awareness Of Human Nature

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I'd like to share an idea I've been working on. I am not satisfied with our current notions of the nature of the human species. As someone used to viewing problems from a "large" systems approach, it doesn't make sense to think we know how to resolve global climate change and other impending ecological crises without focusing on what it is about our species that allows us to ignore the damage we may be doing to our life support system.

Two years ago, a close family member had a stroke, from which they have recovered wonderfully. However, during a period of around 10 days, this loved one basically had their central processing unit shut down. They functioned largely at the basic level of an ape, concerned about being safe and pain-free, not being hungry, being physically impulsive and unable to communicate effectively. This experience helped me solidify my sense that humans, indeed, are more ape-like than we seem to care to recognize.

Anthropologists have been telling us about our similarities to other primate species, but it hasn't seemed to sink in very far into our awareness. In thinking about our inability to address global climate change, it became obvious to me that our primate nature plays a major role in our collective and individual challenges in life - from relationships with the opposite sex, to finding a pecking order at work or at home, to not being so obsessed with television, tools and toys, to getting carried away with nearly every concept or material good we find or create.

So, what is keeping us from understanding that we are absolutely wonderful, brilliant beings, but are substantilly primates with naturally upgraded processors and speech synthesizers? Actually, creationism would seem to stand in the way of accepting ourselves as primates, holding that we are divine beings rather than "animals." Perhaps that old paradigm plays a role in our difficulties with resolving to curtail global climate change and even war. If god demands perfection from us, we can not succeed, so we become frustrated and shamed, which only makes human activity more quirky and potentially destructive.

So, please let me know what you think of this idea. It is not a new one, but is there some relevance to our efforts at curbing potential ecological crises? Please email me at divineprimates@aol.com or visit my blog at www.divineprimate.zaadz.com/blog.

posted by Earon on 8/16/2007 11:45 pm | COMMENTS (5)

Comments (5)

Hello, Friends:

We're still here. My website, www.divineprimates, is a bit more evolved :-) and Ode Magazine is gaining more of the recognition it deserves. If you do business networking on LinkedIn.com, we now have a group there for Ode Magazine. Let me know if you'd like to connect there.

Thanks to Katie and Ode for keeping this avenue open for all of us intelligent optimists!

Peace,

Earon

posted by Earon on 6/27/2008 12:37 pm

Miranda, thanks for your thoughtful comments. That is exactly the bridge that I am trying to cross - finding ways to merge the "divine" with the "primate" in a more seamless manner that allows these aspects to function as partners rather than as a duality.

Maslow's hirearchy of human needs addresses the core necessities for allowing humans to move towards self-actualization. My sense is that human culture's continuing struggle to thwart human nature (including fundamentalist religions) helps to keep us in a state of conflict and trauma that prevents us from feeling the safety and security that would allow us to act out of the higher parts of our nature. If innovation comes strictly from greed or fear, we may focus our ingenuity on weapons systems and scamming rather than advanced food distribution systems, energy efficient transportation and education.

While religion may tempt us into intellectualization and self-loathing, there are spiritual beliefs that engender the courage and faith of religion without the bravado and competitiveness. This is where I recommend "interspirituality," which is present in many mystical traditions around the world. There are core beliefs that include mystical experience without the sense of there being only one truth - only one right way to live. Interspirituality has been around for many hundreds of years. Such a spiritual approach allows us to dream and to see ourselves as more than we are - and yet avoids the tendency to punish ourselves or others when we believe that we have failed that dream and feel that we (or others) are unworthy, even subhuman.

The primate studies of scientists such as Frans De Waal show us that the animal nature of humans is not simply banal, brutal and survival oriented. In fact, instinct is also the seat of our love and courage, our empathy and partnership. Studies of the Bonobo apes are beginning to show a model of partnership, female empowerment and conflict avoidance. While Chimpanzees are more territorial and aggressive, the Bonobo may demonstrate that an alternative to aggression is also available to humans.

Returning to your final paragraph, the power to be "something else" and to do "something else" need not derive from our sense of having beliefs and gods that are superior to those of others. The "something else" we strive for may emerge as more compassionate and universal once we recognize that the similarities between nations and cultures and religions are far more important than the differences. Religions tend to accentuate our similarities with others in our particular community of belief - and our differences with other groups, nations, cultures and religions. They play into our primitive territoriality and tribal natures. Now that we recognize the interdependence of all of the human nations and cultures on earth, perhaps it is time that we dropped the divisive, competitive aspects of religion and moved forward with an interspirituality that acknowledges all faiths and traditions as equal partners in creation.

At the time the United States was being conceived and founded, there was an interspiritual practice that emerged in Europe and America. Deism was born of the frustration and horror at the religious wars that tore apart nations. Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were among the founding fathers influenced by Deism and who believed that "revealed" religions were an impediment to human consensus and progress. Yet, they remained nominally "christian" and believed in God's creations. The details of religion simply became irrelevant to them.

Today, disenchantment with religion has led authors like Sam Harris and Dawkins to seek an end to religion in its entirety. I do not propose an end of "faith," but rather a beginning of faith, with an Interspirituality that respects people of all faiths and no faith at all, requiring acknowledgment that there is not "one" right way to live, and not "one" true faith. This is the source of the religious freedom that allowed America to survive and flourish. It is not a rejection of faith, but just a rejection of superiority and intolerance. In the same way, accepting our primate nature is not a rejection of faith or reason or science. It is simply an acknowledgment of human nature and an invitation to have more faith in our humanity.

Also with great respect and honor,

Earon

posted by Earon on 8/24/2007 11:22 pm

Earon,

As much as humans seeing themselves as part of this world through evolution, through our descent from apes and our...biological and causal nature may help us to feel the imperative TO DO something about protecting the earth and recognizing our definite place in (as opposed to dominion over) it, I can't help thinking that leaving ourselves nothing but a neurological and behavioral basis for our humanity won't get us any closer to feeling that we have the *power* to do anything about it.

Thinking of having an animal nature ("concerned about being safe and pain-free, not being hungry, being physically impulsive and unable to communicate effectively") may as you say help people to feel ashamed and feel responsible for their ills against the earth, but without something to oppose that animal nature, and nay without thinking of that second nature as necessarily more fundamental or powerful, then there isn't anywhere to go from there. I think that the very "divine" nature of man that you might think would oppose the evolutionary view of man is exactly the kind of impetus that should be counterpart, as "divine" is what is greater than what exists anywhere else. Man's ability to see himself as being greater than what he is is what permits progress, and the unspeakably great things that it is (after all, after it is done) possible to do.

As important as it is to know and accept your limitations and acknowledge that nonetheless you are still a wonderful creation enjoying being alive, to neglect the power to be *something else* and to *do something else*, to go further than thinking about being fed and being safe would be detrimental to innovation and any solution to global problems.

With honor and respect,

Miranda

posted by Mtempest on 8/22/2007 12:12 am

Thanks for our thoughtful comments, Martha. I am working on these issues and have reached some very hopeful conclusions.

First, if we recognize that we are primates (aka - we're only human), then we may learn to be more balanced in our approach to life. If we realize that we are programmed to desire the shiny objects and technologies whether they really do anything good for us or not, we may learn to be just a little less obsessed with having the latest cell phone, video game, automobile, etc. This will be better than being trapped in the paradigm of "good vs. evil" in which we know we are spending too much time watching TV or playing games, but the shame and guilt we feel only make us do more of the same.

At the same time, we will learn to take better care of ourselves - since we lose some (not all) of the obsession with becoming perfect being of light. Americans may follow the european model of actually taking long vacations and nurturing our outside interests and hobbies. Rather than ignoring all of our aches and pains from sitting at a desk, or in a car, all day, we may find time for meditation, relaxation and massage. We may thus learn to be more happy with what we have - knowing that it isn't the "stuff" that makes us happy in the long term, but rather the personal connections and relationships that give us meaning.

Second, because of this sense of balance in our individual priorities, we should become more aware of the importance of our collective human priorities. Rather than being desperate to have that new shiny object because we think we "need" it, we will be more able to resist that urge in favor of the collective, global need to live sustainably and protect the environment of our neighbors - as well as our own.

If we look at the bigger picture of the human race, recognizing more fully our primate nature will allow us to avoid many of the proposed "solutions" that only make our problems worse. For example, shaming people because they buy SUV's is counterproductive. Feeling guilty because of all our culture wastes, is also counterproductive. Shame and guilt only feed into our sense of fear and insecurity, which, if anything, feed into our primate need to soothe ourselves with more "stuff." If we can just relax and lighten up a bit, we will have less of a need to consume "stuff" and will be more healthy and spend more time in human relationships in our communities.

Being primates can be "good news" for the human race. If we learn to slow down as a culture, reduce our consumption of caffeine and red meat (as well as getting the drug and alcohol monkey off our backs), we will save a whole lot of human and carbon energy. A less frantic culture will be far more healthy and far less prone to excessive competition, anger and "road rage." And, as we recognize that humans are all one interconnected species, we may come to realize that competing ideologies and theologies should not be allowed to get in the way of peace and partnership.

So, the next time you fall short of an objective, don't beat yourself up about it. Let go of it. Remind yourself that you are a primate, after all, still a work in progress, still a wonderful creation, with the inherent ability to enjoy just being alive.

Peace,

Earon Davis divineprimates@aol.com

posted by Earon on 8/18/2007 3:08 pm

Earon, thanks for some fascinating thoughts. My own background is in cultural anthropology, and so I may have had this awareness - of our essential nature being that of primates - but I know it is something that has not been in my consciousness on a regular basis. Yet, when I see photos of other primates, and it happens that I was just browsing through some before reading your essay - well, there's no denying it. So the question becomes, I think, how to we take this into consideration in our lives? How do we shift emphasis in human culture to the best things about our primate nature, like nurturing, sharing, comforting, and playing, and rein in the most dangerous, like our attraction to too many shiny toys and our aggression and violence?

posted by Martha on 8/18/2007 2:02 pm