Will We Survive?

It seems to me that a big deal of what is affecting the world today has to do with people’s egocentrism. As cliché as it might sound, it is a world where the “fittest” survives. I am puzzled as to whether humans are good or bad by nature. Are we the self-centered people about which Thomas Hobbes talks in Leviathan? Or are we the good cooperative people that Rousseau talks about? The answer to whether we would make it or not in this world lays in the latter set of questions. If indeed we are egocentric by nature, the hope for survival falls short. But, if instead we are the good natured people that Rousseau claims then we might have a chance.

History has shown that humans consistently fight for power; essentially for egocentric outcomes. Since the beginning of humanity war has been an ubiquitous event. Now, the question to ask ourselves is whether the rise of civilization or whether humanity’s innate egocentrism has been the cause of these wars. Interestingly enough, we have evidence of massive and atrocious wars only after the beginning of civilization. But then again before civilization people had not been cluttered together. We do however know that both, humans and proto-humans since the beginning of their respective existence have engaged in conflict. Though never to a massive extent.

Nevertheless, the fact that massive wars did not exist from the beginning of humanity does not necessarily mean that we were particularly more compassionate. The fact remains that for most of our history we have been nomadic hunters and gatherers. During these years of our existence, we only assembled together by family. Essentially, people organized in family based clans usually not reaching the double figures. Thus, the possibility of an organized and massive war was impossible. We had not yet accomplished a centralized power composed of very large populations.

It seems pertinent to point out that animals possess instinctive characteristics ,which often entail aggressiveness. And the fact is that we are part of the animal environment. Essentially we are thinking animals (whatever that means). It seems that we possess unique traits not present in other animals. Language, for instance, is the best representation of our capacity for creativeness and for creating abstractions. Though, other animals have communication systems, ours goes beyond mere communication. As opposed to humans other animals have a restricted form of communication. Often they cannot go beyond the present or beyond basic needs, such as food. We on the other hand can talk about the past and future and about things we have never seen or know to exist.

At this point you are probably asking yourself: what does all this garbage have to do with the environment? Nevertheless, I think that before we can understand what drives us to not care for the environment and whether we will wake-up or not, we have to first examine our very nature. Are we innately self-centered? Or do we genuinely care for other people and the environment? These questions are essential. As to whether we will survive or not, I am not sure at all. However, I do know that though we might be egocentric by nature, we possess a very special ability. And that is the ability to reason. Can we overpower our natural inclinations with the ability to reason? Well, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant certainly does believe it. In fact, the foundation for his theory of morality is based on the idea that we must learn to use reason to overpower our natural inclinations and desires. Maybe, the only solution is to use the tool of: reason, which every person has readily available. Only then, will we understand that we need to care for the environment and not only about ourselves. Only then, will governments and wealthy powerful people start realizing that making money should not be their only concern. Maybe I am being too hopeful; maybe we do not have the ability to overcome our natural inclinations, but it is certainly worth a try.