“Three great forces rule the world: stupidity, fear and greed.” ― Albert Einstein
I am a staunch non-believer but I am open to all faiths and beliefs
because our world is full of irrationalities which logic can’t explain yet. So
please allow me to bring in the invisible and irrational character, we call the
creator or God, in my assessment of the sapiens history and the world beyond.
I think what made us humans so special was, despite our bodily design
we were programmed to walk on twos, a highly unstable and unnatural stance. It
takes almost one year for human baby to learn to walk after many falls and with
lot of difficulty. The biologists argue that long time taken by the human child to
walk is because in comparison to other animals the human child is prematurely
delivered and most of its brain is developed later. But the fact is, the poor
human kid could have never learnt to walk on twos inside the womb inspite of having a
full blown brain. Standing on twos for human baby is learning by hit and trial
process and not by instinct. His first
few steps on earth pave the way for cognitive learning later on in life. Once up and
running, the human child goes on to acquire other cognitive skills over the
years through hit and trial experiences. These exercises make humans inclined
to experimenting with options without being averse to failures giving them a
clear c edge over the other species.
Development of speech and language gave sapiens the advantage of
sharing feelings, thoughts and information efficiently. Their ability to bullshit
nonstop drove the last nail in the coffin of evolution (of life) on earth. Consequently,
imagination, abstract thinking and language capabilities enabled sapiens to
create fictions and imagined realities. By believing in the common myths and
so-called “intersubjective realities” like God, religion, money, governments, law etc, large numbers of strangers could
establish trust with each other and conform to the same set of rules and standards.
And therefore cooperate successfully
together. This kind of social cooperation, both flexibly and in large scale,
differentiates Homo sapiens from other animals and explains the rise of Homo
sapiens to the top of the food chain.
While the life on earth has always been driven by greed and fear, humans
recruited stupidity too when they stood their ground on irrationality of twos. These
intersubjective fictions(realities or stupidities) helped humans to find common grounds
to unite and work collectively to solve various problems in quest for a better
living.
On the other hand falling to intersubjective tales weaken sapiens as
individuals. Imagine persuading a chimp to blow itself with a bomb in return
for it getting 72 bananas in heaven after its death. No way!! Are you kidding?,
says the Chimp. But sapiens do it for 72 hoors. Sadly!
We, as children, grow up believing in stories and fiction. And the
passion these stories incite in us has helped us in achieving the impossible. The science
came in our lives as a tool to understand and tame the physical realities (the nature)
around us. Now it is helping us in realizing the fiction we grew believing in. Also, It is helping us realize intangible dreams
so dear to us.
Fear and greed both override each other and keep living beings in checks and balances to give them the best chance of survival. It’s the passion or the stupidity
which drives sapiens overboard in their quest. Most of the time it works against
the individuals but once in a while individual achievements help the whole
community to cruise forward collectively, at times LEAP.
If we look back, we have come a long way. Today, we are the undisputable
kings of the ecosystem. But looking forward, undoubtedly, driven by passion and
greed, we have screwed the entire ecosystem and our survival looks imperilled.
God, the creator, the invisible irrational SOB, who makes us fight
with each other in order to save self, BLESS US ALL!
~ Inspired by Yuval Noah Harari - Sapiens
1 comment:
Very thoughtful blog!! Well done!! Keep writing to give us thoughtful food for brain.
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