You will find short stories on this site. Most are autobiographical. Some are fiction.

JOURNAL OF TOD LUNDY

ON “HUMAN NATURE”

We are swimming in a sea of mysticism and misunderstandings. We are brought up with fairy-tails and falsehoods leading to our difficulty in seeing reality and moving toward a clear picture of who we are. Once we can mature beyond the belief in Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, the creation story in the bible and the existence of God, we will finally see mankind as just another animal. And like all other animals we have instincts. Don’t refer to those common human attributes as “human nature”, they are instincts.

We are not unlike any other animal, unique in that we are born as a “blank slate.” Like all the others we are born with a large set of propensities. The expression of these can be suppressed or encouraged by the culture in which the person is raised. Many of these traits lead to the survival of our species when those early humanoids, such as Australopithecus (Lucy), were attempting to survive in a world of food shortage and predators like saber tooth tigers. Some of these instincts no longer serve our species well, yet they persist in our genetic makeup. Greed, tribalism, superstition, deceit, self-centered, and the tendency to believe what suits our disposition rather than what is factual, as well as others, are best suppressed in modern society. Others such as altruism, honesty, integrity, sensitivity, inquisitiveness, creativity and others, are instincts which, generally have value in our lives and, should be encouraged.

These instincts are powerful motivators for human-beings. And yet we fail to recognize them for what they are. We offhandedly call them “Human Nature” when we should think of them as instincts to be tempered by society for the benefit of mankind. The question is how to do this while still recognizing the value of individuality and the importance of the freedom of thought and expression?

There are examples on Earth of societies which have modified the behavior and thoughts of their population to an extreme. Most notable among these is North Korea which is an example of how maleiable the human mind can be and also how sinister a regime can be with regard to personal freedom. The United States is at the other extreme of the pendulum of individual freedom as demonstrated by our electorate choosing a president who is extremely self centered. Are there examples of countries which have found a balance with out being dependent on the crutch of Religion? I am not sufficiently conversant with other social/legal structures to explore this topic further. I hope others will pick up this line of thinking and perhaps even identify a recipe to achieve a social structure which can manage to limit the excesses of negative instincts especially among its leadership.