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A Better Human Story: #11-- Humankind as Tragic Hero

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Let's take a closer look at that idea that it is human nature to be selfish etc., and that such inherent flaws in our inherent motivational structure explain our taking the world in a direction away from wholeness.

If we say that it is human nature to be selfish, what then are we to make of the people who act unselfishly? Even if it were true that human beings have an inborn tendency to be selfish, do not these unselfish exemplars prove that this tendency can be overcome?

Even if we bought the negative view of human nature, we would need to look at the means by which the unselfish (or ungreedy, etc.) became that way. Most likely, we would find that being brought up in a certain way -- loving family, supportive community, humane schooling, good role models, etc. -- (versus the opposites of that way) helps explain a good deal of what differentiates those who grow up to be selfish from those who grow up to be unselfish.

Now, given that people want to live in a whole world, and that they're good at creating ways of getting what they want -- and given the evident potential of people to become good even if they are not inherently good -- would you not expect that humankind would be quite able to construct the human world to create the kinds of people (unselfish, loving, just, etc.) who will help to make the world more whole?

That is, unless there were some strong countervailing force operating that thwarts that desire, and blocks that outcome.

The only way I can imagine rescuing the "blame humans" theory is to say something like this: while it is true that some people could grow up to be unselfish (or fair-minded, or compassionate, or whatever), not everyone has that potential.

For that rescue of the blame-human-nature idea to work, it seems, one would have to maintain something like this: among a population of many babies that are born, such a high percentage of them are intrinsically (by nature) irremediably inclined to brokenness as to render it impossible for the human world to become more whole.

But how plausible is that?

For one thing, in evolutionary terms, how would it come to be that there is so much brokenness irreparably built into the genetic structure of so many humans.

For another thing, what seems much easier to believe is that, at birth, the overwhelming majority of people have the potential to grow into adults whose net impact on the world around them would be in the direction of wholeness.

Maybe there's an unselfish-gene that accounts for an Albert Schweitzer (and for all the many millions of other people who choose a role in the world that serves others). But even if it were true that not everyone has such an unselfish-gene:

  1. a) would it not be possible to raise even the rest of the population so that their selfishness is at least in check, and
  2. b) would it not be likely that people lacking the unselfish-gene would have other wholeness-serving potentialities that could be brought out in a well-designed world to make them net-contributors to wholeness in the world?

It is not necessary to postulate that human beings are by nature good (though I expect that is more true than it's opposite). All that's necessary is to believe that most human beings have the capacity, under the right circumstances, to grow into basically good people under the right circumstances.

If that proposition is accepted, and if we accept also that human beings -- unhampered by some powerful headwinds -- would be capable of creating those circumstances that would move the human world toward the greater wholeness the overwhelming majority of people would prefer, the actual broken state of the world would seem in need of some kind of explanation.

The observable fact that the course of humankind has diverged quite sharply from what would seem to be the predictable path should indicate the need to find the equivalent of a "black hole" to explain the destructive trajectory things have actually taken. (A black hole being something invisible but exerting huge force on everything around it.)

The parable of the tribes presents such a black hole. And if we didn't have that idea, or something else that does what the parable of the tribes does, we would be stuck with a huge mystery.

Another mystery, as I see it, is that more people over the millennia have not seen the need for such an explanatory "black hole" -- such an invisible but powerful force -- and have not exerted more effort to identify it.

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Andy Schmookler, an award-winning author, political commentator, radio talk-show host, and teacher, was the Democratic nominee for Congress from Virginia's 6th District. His new book -- written to have an impact on the central political battle of our time -- is (more...)
 
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