The Authentic Person 1 Humans

These next posts come from The Authentic Person: Dealing With Dilemma by Sydney J Harris (1972). These were lectures from the 1960s for the Aspen Institute of Humanistic Studies. I intend to reflect on the issues rather than just describe the lectures.

First, the dethroning of mankind, a new self image. What do we think of humanity post Darwin, Freud and Marx? Why do humans think themselves better than animals? After all humans are animals. Humans think themselves intelligent. Of course, 95% of them are not but sit gawping at a TV screen. Most cannot put a rational thought together but guide their choices by their emotions. Those emotions can be destructive and lead to killing, mayhem and disaster. Humans are easily led - three quarters would kill if they were ordered to if it was a way of saving themselves (see my blog on Stanley Milgram). See also Goldhagen's Hitler's Willing Executioners. Look at Abu Ghraib prison, and look into Iran today. Through the ages, human achievement has been measured by the ability to kill other people or things. Humans will soon wipe out most other species, and then wipe ourselves out. So what do we do about this? A quarter of people are resisters. In Nazi Germany these were the first to be eliminated. By every possible means, education, literature, theatre, we have learn to resist the bloodlust that fills our entertainment, and our political activity. What is humankind that we are mindful of them - quite a bit lower than the angels, and often behaving worse than the demons.

But we need the spin. We must believe ourselves to be altuistic, kind, cooperative and helpful. It is a delusion, but I hope we come to believe it. Those who believe they can be a positive force for good need to become the leaven of social and political development. Am I an optimist or a pessimist about humans having a worthwhile long-term future? Probably a pessimist but there are faint glimmers that grass-roots opinion is beginning to build a degree of inter-cultural understanding. The trouble is opinion top down - the grass roots are there, but often covered in tarmac.