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2 The Voices of Our Nature

We are becoming increasingly aware of the behavioral manifestations of the subtle biological drives that affect us in ways that often elude our awareness. Our evolutionary psychology has been referred to as the lasting indelible stamps of our lowly origins. This may seem obvious to many but it was not long ago that such contentions were viscously ridiculed. It still probably causes residual knee jerks in those who would prefer to believe differently. After all it is so much neater to believe that we (alone out of all animal species) are born as blank pages on which society simply writes a script. We would then just need to fine tune the script and provide the proper setting, and let our behavior "naturally" submit to reason. Unfortunately it is not that simple. It is increasingly apparent that changing our most destructive patterns will require a much deeper understanding of our mental processes and much greater commitment.

Maybe it is one of nature's examples of the law of unintended consequences -- drives that once facilitated our evolutionary success now compromise our intelligence and threaten us with catastrophic failure. We have changed the world around us dramatically … but we remain largely the same. Over the last thousand years the synergistic interaction of human intelligence has lead to an explosion in technology. We now have the numbers, when coupled with available technological leveraging, to create misery for much of life on earth. And we seem to be trending in that direction. The genetic programming that once worked for our success now presents us with some difficult decisions.

Consider four drives embedded in our nature that have demonstrated wide ranging potential to worsen our lot: irresponsible procreation, obsessive consumption, religious fanaticism, and our inclination towards patriotism (or the desire to belong to, and fight for, a group). Generally societies around the world still offer considerable positive reinforcement or feedback for each of these visceral compulsions.

The biological utility of the desire to procreate is obvious. It is strong enough to drive people to give birth even in the most dire circumstances … when doing so will obviously inflict suffering on the child, parent, and society … assuring greater hardship for all. It is now the chief cause of the human misery plaguing the planet. And instead of discouraging its irresponsible expression, the prevailing cultural traditions and religions overwhelmingly proffer layers of reinforcement. Almost universally, news of a pregnancy is welcomed with elation even when it is obvious that one's ability to provide adequate care for the child (or even for themselves) is lacking.

The urge to consume regardless of need probably stems from the evolutionary success of those who hoarded abundant supplies endowing them with advantage to survive the changing and challenging environmental conditions amplified as our species spread out of Africa. And even today, despite all of our professed concerns regarding mindless consumption or ostentatious displays of affluence, rarely is one criticized for buying an item that is obviously in excess of any need. We often blame our indulgences on social coercion or pervasive advertising. But the compulsion to over-consume is strong even when advertising and coercion are essentially non-existent. The external world of the free market merely co-opts and capitalizes on the desires embedded within. Couple exponential increases in population with continuing increases in consumption and it is easy to visualize a collision with the limits of a sustainable ecological reality.

The inherent desire to embrace a belief system, or a religion, is often obscured by the fabrication of complex rationalizations. Biological utility likely derived from being a key part of the glue holding groups together in the face of adversity. Those able to work together effectively thrived and had more offspring … those unable to do so splintered and were less successful. Unfortunately, we still harbor strong desires to "believe" and our societies generally still provide positive reinforcement to those aspiring to religiosity. This human vulnerability was understood and exploited when it became obvious it could be used to further cement tribal loyalty, thus making it easier to exhort the willing to kill and sacrifice for the group, even when it meant putting their lives at heightened risk. Over the years we have singled out many for death and fought many wars in the name of religion, and we continue to do so while our ability to lay waste rapidly escalates.

In a similar way, those having strong desires for loyalty to a group also contributed to tribal coherency, making it easier to surmount hardship, and thus allowing greater fecundity. And we still find it relatively easy to organize an army regardless of whether the purported threat or conflict can be reasonably justified. Vicarious and harmless expressions of group longing are as common as one rooting for a sports team even when little is known about the participants and the outcome has no real impact on the lives of the fans. It simply feels good to be part of a group rooting for a team. Releases of patriotic fervor are almost always rewarded with positive social feedback even when it is obvious that such passion often blinds people to the absurd and specious reasoning used to justify struggles. Struggles that lead more often to strife and suffering than to success in providing for the welfare of the group.

Obviously there are many other bio-drives controlling us in many ways. The above four may be the most socially and ecologically destructive … but others tear at us emotionally. Among these sexual jealousy stands out. For many, this emotional reaction is a chief cause of internal distress and external anger. Its roots probably stem from the avoidance of outside pregnancies and disease at a time in our evolution when other measures were unavailable. Examples of alpha males protecting their breeding stock are common in nature. Those most strongly protecting their mates pass their genes more aggressively, and the behavior becomes embedded in our nature. But in the context of our lives today sexual jealousy would appear to make little sense and serve little purpose.

We know that environment and genes interact in the dance of natural selection resulting in adaptive genetic changes driven by the struggle for survival. The rapid development of our brains might have been hastened by a spiraling contest of wits struggling to control limited resources, or the selecting effects of polygamy by the powerful (assuming a general correlation of power and mental acumen), or many other factors yet to be understood. But the result is that our unprecedented greater intelligence has exploded on the world stage in a relatively brief period of time. And it has outpaced our ability to understand and control the residual biological programming from our earlier origins. We have, in just a few hundred years, demonstrated the capability to exponentially increase our numbers and radically alter the ecological balances in the biosphere to a degree far in excess of any other species in the history of our planet. But we also have a level of intelligence that enables us to place the events that surround us in a greater holistic perspective.

The hope is that we can free this ability from the control of the atavistic voices carried in our nature in time to avoid much greater levels of suffering for all life. But in order to do this we must use reverse programming starting at an early age. Even the most intelligent among us carry the indelible stamps of our lowly origins. Identifying and controlling these primal urges is the quintessential struggle for our species and will determine our human destiny.