I got curious about human instincts and ran into this (delightfully retro even though it’s from after 2010) page while googling the subject. Haven’t read it fully yet but I’ve found it interesting and figured I’d share.
Abstract. Like all animals, humans have instincts, genetically hard-wired behaviors that enhance our ability to cope with vital environmental contingencies. Our innate fear of snakes is an example. Other instincts, including denial, revenge, tribal loyalty, greed and our urge to procreate, now threaten our very existence. Any attempt to control human behavior is bound to meet with resistance and disapproval. Unless we can change our behavior, humans are facing the end of civilization. Our problem has several elements. (1) We have invented economic and social systems that encourage greedy behavior, and we have actually institutionalized runaway greed. (2) We are in a state of complete denial about the growth of human populations. (3) Earth’s finite resources simply cannot support 7.6 billion of us in the style to which we’d like to live. (4) We must make a choice between quantity and quality of human life. (5) To head off the inevitable collapse, we can no longer wait and merely react but we must become proactive. We must find ways to control dangerous human instincts, especially denial, revenge, tribal loyalty, greed and our urge to procreate.
It’s a good question. To me it doesn’t seem like it’s possible, because people are so avoidant and unaware of themselves. Apparently denial is very powerful! I’m sure you’ve seen it in your own life. But maybe psychology can come up with ways to help us? Maybe we need more ways to keep people in check (Dan Ariely talks about this), instead of just trusting that they’ll do the right thing (which clearly by now, we know that they won’t). I think ‘if’ we were smart, we could find ways to help ourselves. The main problem in my opinion, is having people at the top who are ‘not’ smart (you can be educated and still not be very bright in other ways, like having no emotional intelligence or integrity). We should really be more careful when it comes to who we’re allowing to make important decisions that affect a large amount of people.
I don’t think eg. greed is as built in as the author makes it out to be, so the problem is probably less intractable than they make it seem (although still not easy). There’s some good discussion about this over on !socialism: https://beehaw.org/post/677645
I did subscribe to the socialism group, I’ll take a look, thanks.
