On the Precipice of Misanthropy.....

Misanthrope: noun; Someone who has lost respect for human nature and who sees very little that is respectable in the behavior of society as a whole. Someone who believes that man is a hopeless prisoner to his most primal instincts.

“The real hopeless victims of mental illness are to be found among those who appear to be most normal. Many of them are normal because they are so well adjusted to our mode of existence. They are normal not in what may be called the absolute sense of the word; they are normal only in relation to a profoundly abnormal society. Their perfect adjustment to that abnormal society is a measure of their mental sickness.”

- Aldous Huxley, author of “A Brave New World”

Was Huxley correct? Are we only "normal" in context with a "profoundly abnormal society"? OR, are we, as humans, largely incapable of anything more than what we have exhibited over the last few thousand years? Is this, in reality, as good as it was ever meant to get?

Our track record (as humans acting humanely) in this country is not something to boast about. Upon inspection (not even a close one) it’s hard not to use the word “shameful” to describe it. Yes, we ended slavery (after 250 horrific years) and we have no more indigenous people to exterminate and deceive but there are no signs that we are making progress in ending racism and hate; incomprehensibly, white supremacy is gaining steam in the 21st century. We are largely indifferent to the suffering of others and, as a symbol of our unique Americanism, we have a toxic devotion to greed and selfishness. Integrity and honesty? In my lifetime dishonesty has become destygmatized. Lying will cost you less respect than will bad breath. We were once taught that Honesty and integrity are sacred. It was the moral link between the religious and secular world. It was the moral link between cultures.“Where have all the flowers gone?”

We have rounded some edges in some areas; we have managed to put two rich and famous serial rapists behind bars in this century, but I don’t think we have progressed all that much since we crawled out of the oceans to live on land approx. 1 billion years ago...we can run faster and jump higher than ever before but our hearts aren’t growing in any discernible way. Our consciences are thinner than finely sliced prosciutto. It’s hard to find even small traces of integrity among our species. You’ll need a magnifying glass.
The human experiment has a large enough sample size to suggest that this is as good as it’s going to get. We are much better at designing Apps and delivering packages from shipping centers than at caring for our neighbors. It could be argued that greed in this country has never been more in fashion; absurd wealth accumulation is a sport. A person’s “net worth” is measured in solely monetary terms.

And here is the most devastating and impossible to overlook evidence: Fully 1/2 of America is enamored and devoted to the personification of greed, corruption, dishonesty, and lust as it’s hallowed leader. That might be the final verdict. It’s a profound indictment on “human” nature. It’s breathtaking. It’s 2020 and we are still unclear if black people deserve equal treatment under the law (a full 155 years after their emancipation). It’s 2020 and we still don’t demand honesty and integrity from our elected officials. It’s 2020 and we have the most corrupt and heartless and inefficient and profit based healthcare system in the developed world.

I think we should quite possibly accept that “human” is a pretty low standard. It’s nothing to aspire to and it never was. Let’s face it--we are animals. We may be walking upright but we have much in common with those who walk on all fours—don’t let the suit and ties fool you. Our most basic nature is to survive and have sex (and beat the others in the rat race). That is our default. It’s the default of all the members of the animal kingdom. It used to make me brisk when scientists would say that 99.9% of our genetic material is identical to the Apes. Well, after the last four years it’s starting to make a lot more sense. We need to “own it” and hope that for God’s sake there is a planet out there inhabited with life forms that exhibit dignity, and are worthy of respect and admiration. Sadly (our) factory setting is rather crude and largely unsympathetic and almost exclusively self serving.

What does it say about us that, in America, the most respected person is Jesus, followed by Donald Trump? A Saint and a sociopath. A man who washes the feet of the poor with humility and, well, a sociopath. It can give you a headache just juxtaposing those two people. Are we that unclear about whether we prefer truth over lies, empathy over apathy, altruism over greed, humility over narcissism, respect over pussy grabbing? Where I came from ignorance and arrogance and greed would not get you very far. Now, it’s the prerequisite for Kings.

Do you really think that we are immune from putting people in ovens. Think again—with the right amount of scapegoating and flag waving it (or something equivalent) could be on our doorstep. Americans have a history of being very willing to look the other way.

And, if you think it’s an uphill slog to even be “human”(now ) it’s going to get a lot harder as technology takes a bigger slice of the "human" pie.

Now that I’ve ascerted that the factory setting for “human” is very crude, and glaringly uncivilized, then we have to contemplate that transcending “human” is our only chance at survival.

It’s technically achievable. It’s not that we don’t have the intelligence. Our best and brightest have given us electric cars and Twitter, and Thermodynamics, and many other gadgets to amuse ourselves (but), our ability to act in the interests of the greatest good and to resist the constant urge to serve the self is dangerously lacking.

By contrast, The human standard with respect to athletic performance certainly isn’t what Alex Honnold exhibited in climbing the vertical 3,000 foot face of El Capitan without a rope. Yes, he is human but he harnessed and chiseled an extraordinarily super human performance. It’s completely outside the “human” envelope. Runing a sub 2 hour marathon is not the default performance for a human. It transcends the human standard. Yet, we have raised that bar. Our athletic performances and our scientific achievements continue to evolve but not our honor, or our civility towards one another. It’s how we treat our fellow man where the standard needs to be elevated.

We can’t rely on the default of human nature to sustain us in the coming years. We are on the precipice of catastrophe with respect to climate change, automation, income inequality, and sustaining democracy. We are going have to have a bigger boat. We are going to have to evolve beyond our factory settings of survival of the fittest, looking out for #1, dog eat dog, what’s in it for me-ism.

World War 2 was borne out of nationalism, hatred, cruelty, selfishness, and a colossal cooperation and compliance with the directives and propaganda of a homocidal sociopath. The Germans, Italians, and Japanese were slaves to a madmen. Amidst the suffocating ashes there were a handful of Oskar Schindler types, ones who risked everything to help strangers. Ones who put their own personal welfare at great risk. Oskar Schindler said famously “I could have done more” after he spent all of his personal wealth and risked his life to save 1,100 Jews. Schindler was one of only a handful of those “humans” and there were countless millions of perpetrators and facilitators, “other humans”. So, who are the real humans? Anyone from outer space who was evaluating life on earth would say that Schindler and the few others who risked everything to do “what was right” were far outside of the human standard. They were outliers, like Mozart and Einstein and Shakespeare. They were the needles in the giant haystacks. Benevolence and compassion and honesty and altruism are relatively achievable characteristics if their is a will and a shade of discipline. The characteristics that we will collectively need to survive are much more within the grasp of all humans than is the musical genius of Mozart.

It’s going to take an act of (humans).

But, in spite of holding these views with no hope of seeing them challenged it is imperative to say that I have compassion for people; Ironically, more compassion than at any time in my life, and an even greater compassion for children, who deserve to live a childhood free from abuse, neglect, and thoughtless parenting. I’ll never stop reaching out to my fellow inhabitants of this small planet. Being on the “precipice” is no excuse to not treat people with respect and dignity and empathy. Assauging the pain of others in any way, great or small, might be the only salvation for those who need a reason to carry on.

“What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.”

Where do we go from here?

My opinions