Wednesday 27 April 2016

Where did we go wrong with human nature?

Since i can remember as a child, i have seen problems such as racism, intolerance, cruelty and lack of empathy or sympathy between people of every cultural background and religious affiliations that I have come across. In the meantime, i have also witnessed within the same people; love, compassion and care for each other and others. It never made sense to me how perfectly kind and honest people, in certain situations, would act in a complete selfish and cruel manner. I have tried to find the reasons within religious beliefs, however the two common patterns that i have found in the institutional versions of many religions have been that humans are by nature greedy, intolerant and competitive, therefore the only way these negative qualities can be fixed is if the religion in question is accepted and followed. Many of the religions that people currently follow accept this as a given truth. The same theme comes up when you go into mainstream philosophy, where the solution to human problems are to basically rectify our essential nature of being greedy and competitive. Then came the relatively newer perspective of science, which in one way or another promoted the same thing.Consequently, we have created legal structures that reflect these beliefs. Mainly, assuming that unless controlled by force, one way or another, humans will exhibit these negative qualities. Well, as dire and hopeless as the situation may seem, and as much as most established institutions of the world would have us believe that humans are this diabolical creature that have to be controlled, the solution is contrary to these pseudo beliefs.

As my search continued and still continues, i have found in the higher aspects of spiritual traditions, philosophical doctrines, scientific studies and in my own observations that humans are not by nature negatively inclined. We are capable of great compassion, love, empathy and care for ourselves and others and this seems to be the normal pattern of our behavior. In the meantime, we are also capable of all sorts of cruel and negative behaviors. So what is it that brings about this negative state that we project towards ourselves and the world? 
No one knows concretely how the negative aspect of us started and how it spread about the way it has in the world, however it is important to know that in comparison to the destructive world that most are aware of, we know of tribes, communities and even civilizations that have been very peaceful and practically lacked any form of negative behavior towards each other and the environment. Many of these people had not even heard of crime in the way that we understand it. Some examples of these were the "League of Iroquois" in the Americas and the San Bushman tribes of Africa. There were and are other smaller groups that most don't know much about, these people live in closed nit families that display much of the peace, love and compassion that we long for these days.


Before i go into these cultures, let us examine the higher forms of of our institutional systems. When we put aside the dogmatic practices, rituals and cultural traditions of religions, we find that most spiritual teachings are based primarily around "Oneness" or a single consciousness that we are all a part of. Not only that but in reality we are all one in the realm of consciousness with the divine. This means that, it is not only that human beings that are expressions of the same divine consciousness but every living being is one with the divine. Furthermore, everything in the physical world is here with a purpose and humans are not above in terms of purpose or importance. We are merely here to experience this existence as much as any life form. Moreover, since we are an expression of the divine, we are meant to be positive and creative in our nature. So, now what makes this interesting is when we understand the new concepts of Behavioral science, Neuroscience and Psychology. So what do they all say? Well, one common pattern is pretty obvious. If our needs are met, as individuals and collective within the species then we project all those great positive behaviors such as love, compassion, care, and altruism. However, if our needs are not met, then we can behave in a defensive manner, which comes out as cruel, selfish and "inhumane". So what are these needs? These needs are, an environment that consists of Love, companionship, acceptance, respect and physical needs such as food, water and shelter.

So then, what seems to be the problem? Well, for one, our needs start when we come into this world, such as being in the womb. The problem arises when these needs are not met. We can say for certain that the majority of the people born today have gone through some form of childhood trauma. This pattern can not only be observed very clearly but is thoroughly documented in many scientific studies. The trauma can be physical, emotional or both. When we go through trauma in our childhood, unless it is dealt with, it continues on into our adult experiences in the form of subconscious programming. This subconscious programming manifests primarily in our relationships with people and our environment. This is where we see negative behavior in the subtle as the lack of care to the extreme as murder and rape. It is crucial to know that careful studies done by researchers show that there is a direct relationship between human behavior and the kind of environment we come into and raised as children. One such work is done by Dr James Gilligan who has worked with the most violent criminals the world produces for 40 years of his life and was shocked to know how much these people had been abused as children. So going back to those cultures that exhibit very little or no form of crime or negative behavior. The one thing that is common among those small or large group of people is how they treated and brought up their children. Children were seen as the most important aspect of society and as such treated with much love and acceptance. Furthermore, the environments that these children came into were natural and equal for everyone in every way.

There is much more to this topic and entire books have been written about this, however i have made my point about the cause of human behavior. It is not in our nature to be cruel, violent, competitive or any other negative behaviors that we see around us. However, if we are placed in situations where we have to experience war, abuse ( emotional or physical) at the hands of our caregivers or society (whether that is intentional or not), we will see the consequences of it in the many forms of negative behaviors that we observe.

So where do we go from here? Since most of us are traumatized into one form of negative behavior or another, how do we hope to fix this? To start with, since our nature is positive. I believe, with conscious awareness of our actions and knowledge, we can overcome much of our negative programming and behavior. Once we have healed the trauma within ourselves, we will stop spreading this trauma to our children which in turn has the potential to create drastic changes in the world that we live in.

On a bigger scale, we need to understand that policing people, putting them in jails, supporting war and violence of any kind only makes this problem worst. We need to find ways of healing people, not locking them up in violent environments. We need to say no to war, whether that be for security or otherwise. War only creates war, not peace, no matter how noble we are told the reasons are. You don't have to believe me, just read the history books. We need to strive towards a society with less stratification and more equality for all. Finally, we must keep an open mind towards new knowledge and understanding, even if they contradict our deepest beliefs. For, when we stop learning, we stop growing as individuals and as a species. 

Sunday 24 April 2016


When i was a child, there were many things that i was taught. Some i have forgotten, some i could not forget even if i wanted to. One of the lessons that i was inspired by was taught by my father. This lesson has stayed with me throughout my life and has shaped the way i look at people and the world around me.

I remember sitting with my father one day during breakfast when i was probably around 8 or 9 years old. He worked at night and my mom used to go to work early in the morning. I remember my father preparing breakfast for us everyday before my younger brother and I went to school. I don’t remember how it started, but my father raised his hand and told me that, just as we have five fingers that are not the same length, in the same manner, not every person from a community or culture is the same. He went on to explain that there are positive and negative people that are part of every social structure. We cannot judge a whole society or culture based on a few negative people that we have encountered.

At the time, i took it as one of the many things that i was taught by my parents. Over time, i saw my parents’ relationship with others and how they dealt with other people in their every day life. Their actions brought this lesson to life. This had a profound affect on me as an individual. It made me look at every person as a human being, not just a part of religion, a culture or member of a social group. It made me open up to the good in people, regardless of their culture, race or allegiance.

I share this experience with you (aside from the great lesson in it) because i have learned over the years that the home we are brought up in has great influence on how our life unfolds. Paraphrasing, Comenius, (considered the father of the modern school system), who insisted that education starts from home. Not only does education start from home, but we can say that the individuals properly educated within the family can influence the education system in the world.

Parents influence their children with many things, the strongest of which is their actions. What we teach is only the beginning. That which we teach in our conduct is more important than the words without conduct. Our actions, as parents, in our everyday life is what influences our children the most.

Are your actions in line with what you want to teach your children, or do you preach without practice?

~ Faisal Safi ~