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A couple of weeks ago I was having a philosophical conversation with some friends who claimed that human nature is evil.
My reaction was this and I wanted to share it with you:
I sincerely doubt that human nature is evil. Actually quite the opposite, as there are many factors that indicate that humans per se are inclined towards good. Nevertheless the educational mainstream model that prevails since long time ago pushes mankind towards competition instead of cooperation.
We have been led to believe that we live in an “asphalt jungle” and that if another person is “better” than yourself then you will be eaten alive in the race towards “success”.
Most people has not realized, yet, that we have been put one against the other because fear of your fellow beings is one of the pillars of the socio-economic model that we live in and that only benefits a few.
The true revolution, the one that will produce a fair, human (and fraternal) socio-economic and political system is an educational revolution. It won’t come from an armed revolution or any physical confrontation. That revolution, my dear heads of households (all the friends I was talking to are already parents) starts with the individual and in how, when, and where you educate your children. We need to start teaching compassion, self (unconditional) love and love to your fellows beings, charity, cooperation and co-responsibility.
Human beings are a permanent work in progress. Our personalities, customs and habits are formed and as such they change over time. Everything in life changes, mutates, adapts, adjusts, because life is change. Society and the individual form and adapt each other therefore we can safely say that it is up to the individual to balance change towards good or evil. Thus, change and the reality we live in is a personal and non-transferrable responsibility.
The moment when we make ourselves completely responsible of our actions and fully assume our role as agents of change instead of delegating our duties or responsibilities to our government, the system, or God then we will truly transcend and prosper in every possible way. As individuals and as a whole.
This week I am taking a workshop with Sister Cyril Mooney (click on her name to get more info about her and her work), she’s one of the pioneers of inclusive, value-based education and since I met her, around two years ago, I was struck by her methodology as it focuses on cooperation (love), rather than competition against others (greed). It is quite an interesting approach as it encourages people to give, rather than take. Thus, the competition is with your own self and as such it takes you to explore and enhance your own strengths and to recognize other’s gifts and abilities. With this mindset you end up feeling stronger and happier as you know you are doing your best to preserve this supportive, caring environment rather than alone, depressed or unsatisfied as a consequence of living in a careless, greedy community. You feel like you belong, that you still matter, that you are important, even if you’re not the best at everything.
We will post more on this experience as we will be gladly contributing to spread the word and make this beautiful methodology available to as much people as possible. In the meantime please share your thoughts and if you feel you would like to contribute somehow to Sister Cyril’s work, or to Sum Mundus, please contact us either through our Facebook page or by email to info@summundus.org
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2 Comments
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Hi Rodrigo! This is a very relevant topic to anyone interested in human motivation.
Here are my thoughts: Most humans (let’s exclude psychotic and other extreme cases) are BOTH cooperative and competitive. These are “inner drives” which – if you believe in evolution – developed to help humans survive. So they are neither good, nor evil in themselves – they are just inner compulsions. Both of these can be tools for good or for evil, depending on the circumstances. So the real question is about the circumstances, not whether “human nature” is good or evil. More specifically the question is whether we can create societies and organizations which utilize human nature in a good way – “good” being defined as something which mutually improves the situation of individuals and the society around them.
Systems which assume that humans are extremes fail – such as Communism, which assumes humans must be cooperative creatures, or pure Capitalism, which assumes we are competitive, rational machines. These produce “evil” men, because of their repressed and wrongly utilized “human natures”. People under Communism inevitably found ways to outcompete each other in tricky, subversive ways while at the same time being unmotivated by a lack of formal ways to compete. On the other hand, systems which emphasize a pure competitive, “darwinist”, each-man-for-himself ethos tend to develop societies with extreme disparities with both “winners” and “losers” ending up unhappier (if you look at South American or US society, for example).
We can find similar arguments if we look at extreme business or organizational models which treat people like machines – or vice versa, treat them like idealized, cooperative, selfless “angels”.
The systems which seem to work the best so far, are those which treat people like the complex beings they are – motivated by both self interest as well as an interest to help the community around – like most of today’s western social democracies. It’s probably not an accident that states with the highest “happiness index” are places like Denmark, Iceland and Canada, which combine the best of a “cooperative” social system and a “competitive” free-market. If you look at organizations – companies which cultivate a sense of cooperation & working for the public good while being on the competitive edge fare the best – if you look at the examples of Google (“don’t be evil”) or the fact that many major companies now feel the need to have “corporate social responsibility”, and some are even easing away from the militaristic style of management structure which was prevalent until now (though for most companies there is still alot more to be done).
There are definitely improvements over the way systems worked a century or two ago, but there is still a long way to go for both states and companies to find the right structures to make sure “human nature” can find a creative outlet in a non-evil way – whether it’s through competitive or cooperative urges.
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Hi “Bobzilla”, thank you for your comments. It is definitely a challenge to find the middle way. What I like about Cyril’s method is that it takes into consideration the complexity of humans, like you said, into a value based methodology whose pillars are love, compassion and fraternity. There is competition, but that competition is towards yourself not towards others. That, is the key towards cooperation as it encourages individuals to work and concentrate on developing their skills based on their interests and passions rather than forcing people to be the best at everything. We will be posting more about it in the future so please stay tuned.