universal Nature

To grasp the meaning of the world of today we use a language created to express the world of yesterday. The life of the past seems to us nearer our true natures, but only for the reason that it is nearer our language.

This is just a follow up to the last post. It's just something I keep thinking about (I do have to think about it to teach on it). Now, my disclaimer: this is going to get a bit, uh, wordy and technical, so if your brain hurts, or if you can't take/handle discussions on human development/evolution just turn back now.

It goes something like this:

At some time circa 100,000 ya (years ago), homo sapiens emerge among other human groups (think homo erectus, neaderthals).

Around 30,000 ya, homo sapiens sapiens emerge as the only human group.

What happened from 100,000 ya-30,000 ya that allowed for the modern human to become the only species of man in the world?

There are a lot of theories, and I won't go into much detail, but the first is this: that homo sapiens were the best at adapting to their surroundings; the other groups were simply weeded out through natural selection. In this process of natural selection, the best character traits have been passed down, and as a single human race, we are the second largest group of mammals on the planet that is genetically similar (after the cheetahs). Over the course of this time, we developed aspects of human culture that is inherent to all people--a universal human nature. We generally see this as a good thing, as in the modern world, in the face of racism, hate crimes, and cultural insensitivity, we like to see just how similar we are to one another. We all laugh in the same language afterall.

but then, here's where the other shoe drops. what if the reason why homo sapiens survived over all the other groups wasn't that we were better at adapting, and had the best characteristics for survival, but that we were the group that was the one that was able and willing to commit egregious acts of violence against the other human groups. that we survived because we killed off everyone else. and if we accept that humans have an underlying universal nature-- aspects inherent to all men and women-- then what does this mean for modern peoples? that underneath all modern conceptions of culture, we have an inherent trait to commit violence on a massive scale.

and it is not difficult to see how this could be true, given the events of the last 100 years of human history. It is so easy to stand and label "good guy/bad guy;" "us/them;" "right/wrong," when we feel a moral superiority. But what does it mean when you figure out that you are the bad guy? that for all our morality, religion, spirituality... we are all bad guys.