The Fall: The Insanity of the Ego in Human History and the Dawning of A New Era by Steve Taylor

Author:Steve Taylor [Taylor, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 1905047207
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Published: 2010-05-10T14:00:00+00:00

8

THE ORIGINS OF SOCIAL

CHAOS 1 - WAR

IF THE “SELFISH GENE” theory of human nature is correct, all kinds of pathological human behaviour are natural and inevitable. Some evolutionary psychologists have suggested that racism is inevitable, for example. To one group of human beings, other groups are potential competitors for the same sources of food, and so potentially dangerous to their survival. As a result, they are genetically programmed to be hostile towards them. People are only interested in the survival of their own genes – which are also carried by their relatives – and this is always threatened by members of other groups. 1 In a similar way, rape has been seen as inevitable. There will always be some men who can’t find women to have a legitimate sexual relationship with; but their selfish genes are still desperate to replicate themselves, and so these men have little “choice” but to force women to have sex with them against their will. 2

The human race’s predilection for making war has been reduced to the same crude terms. According to the “selfish gene” theory, war is really only one step forward from racism. It happens when the survival interests of different groups collide. Nature only offers us limited resources – a limited number of fruit trees in a certain area, of animals for hunting, of streams for drinking water and washing, and so on. Our survival depends on our access to these, so when other groups either use them, or threaten to use them, our selfish genes impel us to fight and kill. In evolutionary psychological terms, groups become “forces of selection” which are permanently in conflict with one another.

Even more crudely, there are some attempts to explain war in chemical terms. We’re often told that male aggression – which leads to both war and patriarchy – is the result of the large amount of testosterone which male human beings have inside them. The average man produces 5,100 micrograms of testosterone every day, whereas women produce just 100 micrograms. And testosterone chemically instructs us to - in Ken Wilber’s phrase - “fuck it or kill it.” 3 It means that, at heart, all men are Vikings who like to spend their time fighting and fucking.

Another theory is that male aggression – and by extension war – is caused by reduced levels of the brain chemical serotonin. Laboratory experiments have shown that when animals are injected with serotonin they become less aggressive, and studies have found that children who are impulsively aggressive tend to have low serotonin levels, as also do adults who commit violent crimes or suicide. Other studies have suggested that there’s a link between violence and low levels of blood cholesterol or higher than usual levels of insulin. 4

One problem with these chemical theories is that it’s impossible to tell whether the chicken or the egg came first. It’s perfectly possible that the chemical state in question (such as a lower level of serotonin or a high level of testosterone) might be the result of aggressive behaviour rather than its cause.

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