Human Nature

The common thread through all of our collective abuse of each other and of the planet’s ecology is: Human Nature, its proper or improper use! The facts are: We humans stand 5 or 6 feet tall in an infinite universe, with a brain the size of a cantaloupe (so how much can we really know??); AND we have an ego the size of an elephant. And that’s the “elephant in the room” in any gathering. Our elephant ego is generally not acknowledged, except by those with realistic humility. And most people don’t even train their elephant—they allow it to trample all over anything and anyone around, creating injury and abuse, and at minimum hurt feelings, as the human pecking order is stamped out by big elephant feet. And if/when feelings, emotions, or infantile tantrums dance with the elephant, everything and everyone in the area gets trampled.
It’s well known that trained elephants can be great teammates (it’s an imperfect metaphor because we don’t have to enslave our ego in the manner of a trained elephant– we only have to be introspectively aware of it, and it can willingly and lovingly comply with any righteous actions or goals, as a partner, not a wild beast).

Human nature has huge and variable potential. The best aspects of human nature, of course, include loving and caring cooperation and intelligent stewardship of our families, friends, co-inhabitants of our planet, and our planet itself. There is no other reasonable home for us other than Lifeboat Planet Earth as we spiral through the galaxy and universe. Visiting Mars is a waste of time and resources that we would better use to feed, clothe, house, and educate our next generation so that the overpopulation and abuse of resources and the biosphere can hopefully be dialed back to reduce the global stress we are cumulatively imposing. Humans comprise the most invasive and destructive specie in the known history of our planet.

Within the variable potential of human nature is the ability to go VERY negative, to withhold love and empathy and allow hate and abuse to grow and dominate. We have the ability to lie, steal, cheat, deceive, abuse, and kill—and hide the motivations for this behind any number of excuses; excuses that rationalize bigotry, murder and genocide, and that allow the elephant to trample mercilessly.

Human nature is the common thread behind all misbehavior. A deeper, introspective understanding of human nature using our own experience as the most relevant and accessible educational example, is the only possible cure for the disease we are imposing on the planet and each other. If we close our eyes to our own corruptible nature, we allow our small dishonesties and unfairnesses to continue, AND WE ALSO HAVE NO MORAL STATURE TO OPPOSE THE BIGGER ABUSERS AT THE TOP OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC- POLITICAL FOOD CHAIN. In fact, more and more we are using these high-profile “bad examples” as study cases for our own misbehavior, emulating and admiring that behavior; and that’s behind the moral breakdown of our society.

We owe a dedicated, honest and introspective investigation of our human nature as we choose to express it, to ourselves and each other in order to rescue the self-imposed unsustainability of our social and environmental order. We need a thoughtful revolution in the expression of our human nature. Since movements and leaders thereof can easily be corrupted or killed, we will need a leaderless revolution, spreading virally because it can be understood as the only behavioral and spiritual corrective action that can pull it all together at this late date in the destruction of our planet and ourselves.

If we do not have the moral strength that comes from knowing and acknowledging our own weaknesses and pathways to failure, we will not choose to recognize our leaders’ abusive uses of their human nature, and we will be subject to our own “slippery slope” syndrome. And we will have no foundation to oppose (or, for that matter, even vote against) such morally challenged leaders.

It’s not that hard to do, although it’s scary at first. I (Richard Stancliff)
personally came from a partially dysfunctional family that utilized lying as a
means to deflect responsibility and even to embellish stories for “interest value”.
My early adult life was a mess because of this. Only by admitting to this mess
and engaging with a “work group” to help me clean up, was I able to move
forward in life. I was probably only 50 or 60% honest; and after working on my
negative human nature, I believe I’m firing along somewhere in the 90’s now.
There are established processes to use to work on the negatives of one’s own
human nature.
The newspapers are full of stories that can only occur by the negative application
of human nature. ONE DAY’S stories (below) illustrate this on a local, national,
and international level. Also presented is an email conversation between friends,
that further develops these thoughts.

“We have become, by the power of a glorious evolutionary accident called intelligence, the stewards of life's continuity on earth. We did not ask for this role, but we cannot abjure it. We may not be suited to it, but here we are.”
~Stephen Jay Gould, The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History

“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. ”
~Franklin D. Roosevelt

“For every additional year of primary schooling, a child's future productivity grows 10 to 30 percent.”
~George Psacharopoulos.

“In America today you can murder land for private profit. You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the cops. ”
~Paul Brooks, The Pursuit of Wilderness, 1971

“If the world's dwindling forests and coral reefs were compared to museums and universities, "then their destruction would be regarded as massive vandalism .”
~Klaus Toepfer, director of the U.N. Environment Program.

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.”
~Jimi Hendrix

“Through his dignity, grace and the quality of his forgiveness, Nelson Mandela made racism everywhere not just immoral, but stupid.”
~Tony Blair, British Prime Minister

“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace”
~John Lennon

"“In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.” (1987)
~Carl Sagan"