Let's Get This Thing About Humans Right

There is no such thing as innate human goodness

"Humans suck. Work on sucking less." (Mark Manson)

This controversial and contestable story asserts humans are not innately good.

I do not argue there are no noble humans. Humans are only sporadically good when they can rise above their baser instincts. This harsh truth will strike you hard if you stop believing "absolute moral truths" and look closely at history.

We talk about life's purpose. Some people have noble purposes like serving others, helping animals, protecting nature, etc. They are exceptions to the rule that most of us only live to ensure survival.

Life is essentially about survival, not flourishing.

They have sold the myth of progress to us. Sure, living standards have exponentially increased over the ages.

That's material progress. Has human nature progressed to the extent we can say humans are innately good?

Nobility is an exception; selfishness and stupidity are the norms.

Spiritually, mentally and psychologically, we are the same beasts who lived in caves millions of years ago.

Evolution is not about moving from a lower state to a higher state. Evolution has no goal. As the British philosopher John Gray said in his book, "The Silence of Animals: On Progress and Other Modern Myths":

“The most important feature of natural selection is that it s a process of drift. Evolution has no endpoint or direction, so if the development of society is an evolutionary process, it is one that is going nowhere. The destination that successive generations of theorists have assigned to evolution have no basis in science. Invariably, they are the prevailing idea of progress recycled in Darwinian terms.”

The myth about the decrease in violence

Humanists like the best-selling author and psychologist Steven Pinker have argued we live in the least violent period of human history.

This argument is technically correct if we look at the number of violent deaths in the contemporary world.

A body count, however, is a poor measure of violence in contemporary society. Violence happens in different ways, some of which are not visible.

The Covid-19 pandemic was ( or is) an act of violence against humanity. Have we found out how the virus came to infect humans?

Have we abolished wars and civil wars?

My mind seethes with anger ( another example of a baser instinct) when I hear people talking about human rationality.

It only takes a mad man to unleash a Third World War. We came close to the brink when Russia invaded Ukraine. Do you believe me when I say human stupidity and brutality have no limits?

What about human violence against nature? Isn't climate change nature's vengeance against the irrational and stupid actions of the human animal?

Beautiful stories about the decrease in violence don't stand the scrutiny of science because human nature remains the same despite ages of so-called civilisation progress. We can never eliminate the human potential for violence.

Final thoughts

The slogan "be yourself" is toxic because it asks us to live with our innate imperfections. It's a meaningless slogan because humans do not possess any intrinsic goodness. It doesn't make sense even as a secular and positive message because our personalities, character and interests change over time.

This story is not a nihilistic rant against humanity of which I am a part. I am not a misanthrope but a realist who wishes to shine the spotlight on a harsh truth that we can hope to strive toward goodness not as a natural inclination or automatic behaviour but by overcoming our baser instincts which hide inside all of us.

Thanks for reading this story.