Oh, The Humanity

I've been thinking a lot about human nature lately. When I say human nature, I guess I'm wondering about the destructive or evil inclinations we have. Graffiti (tags specifically) particularly bothers me because it is ugly and pointless. Pure destructiveness. The metro (subway) station near where I live (and consequently take everyday to work) is littered with graffiti on the tarp that covers up the escalator that's under repair. Furthermore, there is so much litter under the tarp that you have to wonder: wouldn't it just be easier to throw it in the garbage? It's not like there aren't any around. We often use expressions like, "to err is human" or "he's only human" or "that's just human nature." I think one of the things people say that really bothers me is when they try to excuse themselves by saying it's only natural. To paraphrase M. Scott Peck: shitting in your pants is only natural.

What does this imply? That human nature, like the Christians believe, is base? Are we truly burdened with Original Sin? M. Scott Peck wrote a fabulous book on human nature called People of the Lie, and talks about why evil exists in the world. His belief is that we should not be disappointed when we see evil, but we should expect it. We should be more surprised when we see good in the world, because people are not naturally inclined to do good. This is probably a very depressing idea to most people.

To say that we are "sinners" and leave it at that is a naive concept. I think what makes us human is not just that we are inclined to do evil but that we are capable of learning to do better. I think, to be bold, this is how we make our life meaningful: by striving to be better people and improve ourselves in all areas of our poor existence. This is what truly separates us from the animals. It is not just our freedom of choice, in which we can choose to follow our baser instincts, or rational thought (a higher level of consciousness, if you will), which we can avoid, but a combination of these with the ambition to better ourselves. A good example of this is freedom of speech. Truly, we can say what we want. We can think and say things that show how intelligent and self-aware we are. Or we can decide to follow our baser instincts and say things for the sake of being provocative, without any thought as to the consequences (the incident with the editorial cartoon of the prophet Mohammed comes to mind).

In the end, as M. Scott Peck points out, we give up shitting in our pants. We figure out that it is not the way things are done, and make an effort to do something completely unnatural: hold it in, sit on a funny receptacle and flush it away. My hope is that in the end, we will give up our other baser natural instincts and strive for something purer.

"The problem with this world is that people are all too aware of their rights and not aware enough of their responsibilities."